A Port Moody hockey player battling Grade 4 brain cancer is girding for another round of radiation treatment.
In an update to a GoFundMe page raising money to support Wade MacLeod’s treatment of a glioblastoma tumour, Karly MacLeod said a sixth operation in November allowed doctors to remove “a huge portion” of the growth.
But uncertainty about her husband’s future remains.
“Since Wade’s surgery, we have been in limbo with treatment but desperate for a solution,” Karly MacLeod said.
Wade MacLeod, who grew up in Port Moody and played for the Merritt Centennials in the BC Hockey League before attending Northeastern University, was playing for the Springfield Falcons in the American Hockey League when he first fell ill in 2013 after collapsing during a game.
Doctors found a non-cancerous tumour the size of a golf ball in the left side of MacLeod’s brain. After it was removed, and following extensive physical and speech therapy, he resumed his playing career in the ECHL and 34 games with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies before heading to Europe.
MacLeod scored 61 points in 50 games for the second-division Rosenheim Star Bulls in Germany and was preparing to return overseas for a second season when he had a second seizure.
This time MacLeod was diagnosed with a cancerous glioblastoma.
Six months later though, he was back on the ice with the ECHL’s Allen Americans in Texas, then signed with the Frankfurt Lions in Germany the following season.
A third seizure felled MacLeod in September 2018.
Doctors removed a Grade 3 glioblastoma tumour. Several months of chemotherapy followed, along with speech, physical and occupational therapy as well as dietary changes and special hyperthermia treatments that use high temperatures to kill cancer cells.
In November 2020, MacLeod got the go-ahead to resume training and the following August he told the Tri-City News he was in the best shape of his life as he prepared to join the Manchester Storm in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League.
“The biggest thing is never give up on our dreams and always stay positive,” MacLeod said following an on-ice workout at Planet Ice in Coquitlam.
MacLeod played seven games in Manchester, scoring one point, then signed with the Narvik Arctic Eagles in Norway.
But in June 2023, MacLeod said his hockey journey was over.
“I gave all my life to hockey and now it is time to turn the page,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
A fifth brain surgery in December 2023, confirmed the worst fears of MacLeod’s family, that includes two young daughters; his glioblastoma tumour was now Grade 4 — the most serious and aggressive form of the disease.
In her most recent update, posted by Karly MacLeod on Jan. 18, 2025, she said Wade’s battle and sixth surgery have exacted a toll: Changes to his motor and speech skills have necessitated alterations to their home and the couple accelerated a longstanding plan to renew their vows on the tenth anniversary of their wedding so they could celebrate with their daughters.
“We’ve learned the importance of living in the moment and taking everything one day at a time,” Karly MacLeod said, adding she’s also dialing back her work as an interior designer to help care for husband and manage his upcoming treatment plan that includes four weeks of radiation along with hyperthermia, drug and dietary therapies as well as some alternative medicine approaches.
That means some of the almost $142,000 that has been raised so far through the GoFundMe campaign will go towards supporting MacLeod’s family as well as covering medical expenses that aren’t insured, Karly MacLeod said.
“Some days can be beautiful and some days can be hard,” she said. “We feel the love and it has helped us immensely to continue taking each foot forward and never giving up.”
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