Matt Cross has a life mission: to train young men to become leaders. Above all, he does it for example.
Cross is a hockey coach for young people, raised in Toronto and a Raleigh transplant. “As an athlete, I always try to encourage and teach my athletes to be courageous and to be courageous and to be responsible,” he said.
After a 36 -year -old cancer diagnosis, he added another element to this mission.
“Because I work with many families and many young people, it was very easy for me to decide that there was a reason why I was going through this,” he said. “It was very easy for me to consider this as an opportunity to make my family and my friends proud and show young people what you do when you have a really difficult obstacle in your life.”
It was a visit to his father who led cross to face this obstacle: testicular cancer.
His father had heart problems and tried to understand what was going on. Cross therefore proposed to wear an Apple Watch so that they can compare EKG readings. When Cross obtained an abnormal reading, he promised his father that he would check with a doctor.
Cross had another question ready for this meeting.
“While I put my physique, I said,” Hey, you know, why don’t you check this bump, “he recalls.
“I had a bump on my testicle which was there for several months, and – typical guy – I told myself that I would go to the doctor when I had a real reason to go to the doctor,” he said.
His father and the abnormal EKG provided this reason.
The answer came on Christmas day 2019.
“I was stadium 2b. Stage 2B means that cancer is from the testicle, ”explains Cross.
Testicles cancer is the most common cancer for men aged 15 to 35. Standard treatment is the elimination of testimony that contains cancer.
As a coach, Cross understood to be in the fight, but he was looking for a victory. Aware of the tradition of cancer survivors who sound a bell to signify that they had reached the remission, Cross was disappointed when, at the beginning, he did not see a bell at the office of his doctor.
He endured two surgeries and three chemotherapy cycles, a total of 15 full days of infusions.
“The story tells, when I arrived for my last day of treatment, they had installed a bell,” he said. “So I was able to have a celebration and ring it.
“As a cancer and surviving patient, you learn to celebrate all the victories, the little ones, the big ones,” explains Cross.
It was this message that he shared with his players and their parents.
“Cancer is all kinds of life lessons that are launched to you at the same time,” says Cross.
“For many people, it’s devastating, and you are sick and you literally try to survive. But if you can somehow come to this place where you learn and you grow and you help others, I really think that is how you should try to go.
“The most astonishing thing that never happened to me was to get sick. It’s crazy. No word play. ”
Cross was surrounded by support from the hockey community throughout its fight.
He remembers: “It looked like emails, phone calls, SMS, food cards, a gofundme. Many local hockey teams have stuck their purple sticks and put ribbons on their jerseys. ”
This support marked the pressure for Cross recovering.
“It was really a large part of my fight; I can’t drop these people, ”he says.
In remission for five years, Cross has returned to its leadership modeling mission.
A year until the day after his diagnosis, Cross launched the Raleigh Testicular Cancer Foundation. The objective is specifically to raise awareness and educate testicles on cancer, and generally to bring men to pay attention to their own health.
“Our slogan for our charity is to check your acorns. It’s a bit like an intelligent and cute way of encouraging men and young people to perform self-checks, “he says.
“We are trying to demolish the stigmas so that men record the appointment of this doctor and this annual physique.”
Cross points to generalized acceptance and consciousness of self-need for breast cancer.
Men need this additional boost, he says, to understand the risks of ignoring the signs of warning their body.
“It is not a question of being masculine and of being strong,” he says, “it is a question of saving your life, potentially. Cancer’s healing rates when you find them in step one are much higher. ”
Diagnosis: Young. The new face of cancer in NC
“Diagnosis: Young. The new face of cancer in NC” is the latest investigation documentary for the Wral Doc unit, exploring the alarming trend of cancer striking younger adults in North Carolina and across the country. The documentary follows three Northern Carolinians in the twenties and the thirties who did not expect a diagnosis of cancer so early in life. Behind each personal story is the big question: why does it happen?
Diagnosis: Young is available on Wral’s streaming platforms and Wral’s YouTube channel. It will also be broadcast on Fox 50 on Sunday June 29 at 1 p.m. and on Wilm on Sunday, June 29 at 6 p.m.
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