On Thin Ice

As a competitive hockey player, I dreamed of playing professionally. When I lost my leg to bone cancer, I thought it spelled the end of my career

- TYLER MCGREGOR

I GREW UP in a hockey family. Every winter, my dad made a rink in our backyard in Forest, Ontario. At age three, I joined a Timbits team and fell in love with the game. I'd come home from school and spend every evening on the rink. Then I'd go inside and watch hockey on TV. I looked up to players like Doug Gilmour and Sidney Crosby, and I dreamed of playing in the NHL or for Team Canada. Maybe I was naïve, but I believed I had the work ethic, discipline and hunger to make it.

By the time I was 11 or 12, I was playing well, and people began to notice. I dominated minor hockey and knew I had a strong chance of making the OHL. At 15, I joined the Huron Perth Lakers AAA team, where I met some of my best friends. I didn't know it yet, but their support would help me get through the lowest period of my life.

Leading up to our first game, I had some pain in my lower legs, which I assumed was shin splints. That didn't stop me from giving my all. In the second period, there was a play in front of the net. A defenceman took a sudden turn, and we collided. Pain shot through my left leg. I tried crawling to the bench, but my leg had given out completely. In agony, I was rushed to the hospital.