According to the Canadian Cancer Society, nearly one in two Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life, while one in four of those is expected to lose their battle.

Sunday night across the country hockey teams were taking part in Hockey Fights Cancer.

Matt Friesen, Director of Marketing & Business operations for the Winkler Flyers says it gave the team a chance to “raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Cancer Society as well as Katie Cares, which is a great local organization.”

Katie Cares was started by a local student Kaitlyn Reimer who wanted to make care packages for cancer patients, while also undergoing treatment herself. They also house family members of patients across from the Boundary Trails Health Centre at Katie’s Cottage.

Purple jerseys were worn during the warm-up which were then auctioned off for Katie Cares. As well, the night game gave the players and spectators a chance to honour an important member of their team.

“Winkler Flyers and the community as a whole lost a supporter this past spring, Greg Ens from Southland Honda lost his battle with cancer,” says Friesen. “He has served as the team president. He has served as an executive member, supporter, PA announcer, billet dad, he has been all kinds of things . . . He did serve a lot of years as a director with Hockey Manitoba and Pembina Valley Minor Hockey.”

He adds, “as an organization, we always wanted to honour some of the local supporters that we've had that have lost their battle with cancer, so it was an easy marriage between those two.”

The PV Hawks got a tour of Katie Cares on Sunday afternoon (Photos courtesy of Winkler Flyers and PV Hawks).

Meanwhile, in the Manitoba AAA U18 Hockey League, the male and female Pembina Valley Hawks also donned purple jerseys at their games.

Team Captain Derek Wiebe says “earlier in the day we went to Katie Cares and got a tour of the place and talked to Katie’s mom. It’s just a pretty amazing story of how that happened.”

“Then we went to the hospital and delivered oranges to the workers there just to say thanks for all the stuff they do. It was a pretty special day to be a part of it . . . every single one of my grandparents has had cancer before so it was pretty important to me,” says Wiebe.

They raised $633 at their game, while the Flyers raised $2,500.