#NHLVideos: Stelter family’s impact on the hockey world | Hockey Fights Cancer

Stelter family’s impact on the hockey world | Hockey Fights Cancer

I have two tattoos the first one I got is Ben when he was in the hospital he used to take out a marker and he’d write his name on my arm the other one was when I was diagnosed missing my daughter’s handwriting just remember to fight like Ben do with courage and Grace and try to help other people out along the way [Music] we’re from Edmonton we’ve lived here most our life there’s myself Mike and we have three kids Dylan who’s 16 Emmy who’s five and Ben was six we’re huge Oilers fans but somehow Ben was even bigger Oilers fan than we were what are you going to be when you’re bigger play hockey in March of 2021 Ben was in our basement playing mini sticks and he came upstairs saying that he wasn’t feeling good he started vomiting um we thought it was just a a flu or something like that and he actually had a seizure we had to call 911 and take him to the hospital and that’s when we found out that he had a mass in his brain the next day he was in for surgery Ben was diagnosed with gleo blastoma uh 2 months before his fifth birthday gleo blastoma is the most common form of brain cancer as a stage for brain cancer G blastoma is very difficult to treat and highly aggressive to hear your child has been diagnosed with cancer is something no family should ever hear it was so difficult to be processing all that information but at the same time he was his regular happy self who’ you get during his treatments we would watch hockey games together and he would cheer for his favorite player Conor McDavid 97 oh my goodness we Ding A driveby for his birthday and didn’t really know him I just knew that you know there was there was a child that was battling cancer and he said his dream is to meet Connor I reached out to Connor and as Connor is always generous his answer was an immediate yes we actually didn’t tell Ben and so we got there before Connor and we were all just sitting on the couch chatting and then the door opened and Connor walked in Ben jumped up off the couch and he said Connor but just blown away with his personality how he was so energetic and brought so much life into the room it was an instant friendship every time I was around him I felt so much joy and this perspective on life certainly taught me anything lesson in terms of what life means little did we know the impact that he was going to have on the organization he came in as the you skater that uh comes on the ice before the game that the first game was pretty awesome he came in the room I was doing media and I said then you want to come do media with me and uh you a big smile on his face and sure what did you think of the game today we good and that’s where kind of the world got introduced to him we became kind of a spark that we needed and carried that kind of energy throughout the playoffs there let’s go Oilers Ben was a huge part of our playoff run in 2022 I think they drew strength from the courage they saw six-year-old and going through this battle with cancer which they knew would ultimately be fatal throughout this entire Journey the Oilers organization has been huge to our family but after B pass just to see how much they truly cared about him meant a lot to us we’re all open for that miracle I think everybody kind of understood the situation but that doesn’t stop you from uh you know hoping for a miracle I mean when I heard the news of Ben’s passing it was It was obviously um [Music] heartbreaking I just really want people to remember how positive Ben was and even though he was fighting for his life he was so happy he was only six but he lived he lived so much and so big in those six [Music] years so we started the Ben stter Foundation a couple of months after had passed away in our minds it was just something small you know we just wanted to bring positivity to other kids battling cancer once a sheif mai connected with us we realized it could go a lot bigger we have four pillars in the foundation we have magical experiences medical equipment research and Venture philanthropy all targeted to Pediatric cancer I think Ben’s Legacy is going to be one of helping people with uh with this fund and to me that’s a great thing car we know that sadly you lost your friend and Super Fan Ben stelter last year so here to present you with your hot trophy joining us all the way from Edmonton please welcome the Stalter family going to the NHL awards in 2023 was really special for our family we knew Ben would want us to go to be there for his buddy we had made the trip there which was amazing just at that point was actually during the the middle of us finding out about Mike’s diagnosis it started out in March of 2023 I started getting really bad back pain and some tingling down my leg I finally had an MRI done and that’s when they realized that a tumor was forming on my spine it was saroma sarcomas are Cancers that can develop in the bone or soft tissues they count for approximately 1% of adult cancers I think you can’t really make sense of any of it the only available option at the time was uh to go for proton therapy we had to travel to uh Philadelphia to go to the University of Pennsylvania for the treatment as a family you have to decide okay how do we do this how do we make this work we ended up being in Philadelphia for 9 weeks I’m happy to report now that everything is feeling way better I’m not experienced the same pain I was before so I know that the treatment did work see good on behalf of the NHL the nhlp you’re making a don the stelter are an inspiration certainly for the Edmonton Oilers they’re a very special family it’s a family that’s gone through things that no family should have to go through I just want to see better outcomes and I want to see better treatments for patients I want a better quality of life um for for anyone going through cancer but especially kids no matter what you’re going through you can still smile you can still enjoy life um you can make every moment count and that’s what Ben did is he brought a smile to everybody else even though he was going through the fight of his life fight like Ben [Music]

Ben Stelter’s fight against cancer left a lasting and postive impact on the Edmonton Oilers and the world of hockey. With the creation of the ‘Ben Stelter Fund,’ the Stelter family continues to support efforts to stamp out cancer.