Photo supplied by Jodie Atkinson

By Curtis Galbraith

Community

Peace Region team wins gold five years after leading scorer’s cancer diagnosis

Jan 23, 2020 | 5:30 AM

A championship won by a Peace Country hockey team at a recent international competition is being called more than a gold medal by one of the players.

The Peace Country Canadians won women’s hockey gold earlier this month at the World Master’s Games at Innsbruck, Austria.

Jodie Atkinson says her sister got the organization of the club started, and ended up its leading scorer, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2015.

Atkinson says surgery was followed by a long recovery period.

“She had 44 days of radiation, followed by a year-and-a-half of chemotherapy. It took probably about two years before she felt kind of normal again and she still battles a lot of symptoms that are associated with it.”

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She adds her sister was very emotional at the medal ceremony.

“She’s always been such a strong person. They gave her two years to live almost four-and-a-half years ago. We didn’t think she’d be around, or even use the left-hand side of her body, let alone be the top scorer in an international hockey tournament.”

Jodie says it was “pretty amazing” for her to see all of this unfold.

“I saw where she was at for 2015, where we thought we were going to lose her and to share that experience with her (along with their sister-in-law) to share that experience and see (it happen) was pretty amazing and positive and fun.”

Atkinson’s sister did not wish to be named for this story.

Five of the players are from Dawson Creek, three are from Fort St. John, two are from Edmonton, and there is one each from Peace River and Grande Prairie.

Two teams from Austria and one each from Canada and Germany played each other in the hockey competition January 10, 11, and 12. The Canadians beat one of the Austrian teams in the final.

Photo supplied by Jodie Atkinson