Blood donations help young hockey player beat cancer twice: The Hero in You

Hero in You: Helping child with cancer CTV’s Maralee Caruso shows how blood donations were able to help a child when he was diagnosed with cancer.

The family of a young hockey player is thanking Canadian Blood Services for helping him beat his greatest opponent twice – cancer.

Ryder Robinson loves scoring goals when he's out on the ice, but the 11-year-old right winger has already achieved his biggest win off the ice by beating cancer. He's bounced back thanks in part to generous donors who provided him with blood platelets and bone marrow, which has given Ryder a second shot at life.

Playing hockey is what Ryder Robinson loves to do. Today he's working on his skating skills as his team the Stonewall Blues prepares for its next game. But Ryder has already beaten his biggest opponent twice: cancer. He was just eight months old when doctors diagnosed him with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or "ALL," a diagnosis given to fewer than 30 kids a year in North America who are that young.

Ryder's mom, Christine Guyader, said hockey proved to be the perfect distraction to get him through the fight.

"He use to play mini sticks with his dad, his grandpa in the hospital. He'd be hooked up to all these machines and shooting round a ball in his hospital room from the time he could like stand," Guyader said.

Ryder underwent ten months of intense chemotherapy, but the cancer came back. At two years old, he underwent even more treatments and then a bone marrow transplant, and to help get him through it all was Canadian Blood Services.

"From that first night, they came into our lives by Ryder receiving those units of blood and platelets, which is all due to Canadian Blood Services," said Guyader. "Without them and without those donors, we just wouldn't have Ryder."

Now in remission, cancer is a distant memory for Ryder. He actually doesn't really remember any of the experience. The same can't be said for his mom, who beams as she watches Ryder make strides to a brighter future one skate at a time.

"Don't take the little things for granted," she said. "We're getting to see him do all these things that there was some days that we never thought we would be able to see him do."

CTV's Hero in You campaign continues this month, encouraging all Manitobans to donate blood if they're able. For more information, go to blood.ca.