Former NHL player and coach Ted Nolan has competed in the Memorial Cup, the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Olympic Games. In October he will be honored as an inductee inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, receiving the Order of Sport for his contributions to the NHL and for his advocacy for Indigenous youth, using sport to inspire and build self-confidence.
While he faced difficult situations on the ice, he now turns his resolve to living with multiple myeloma, a chronic blood cancer that develops abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow and compromises immunity. It causes severe bone pain, weakness, fatigue and frequent infections.
Sore ribs led to a cancer diagnosis
“I went for a walk and fell,” says Ted, 67, of the winter afternoon in 2022 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, now seared into his memory. There was hard snow on the ground. “I slipped, and you know I swear to God I fell on a rock.” The pain that followed made him think he had broken his ribs.
At home in St. Davids, Ontario, “in wine country” near Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he and his wife Sandra live close to their two sons and grandchildren, Ted decided to go to the hospital to have his ribs checked. He was sitting in the emergency room waiting room when the hockey and medical worlds collided in a beautiful way, laughing: “Thank God a doctor walked by and he said, ‘Hey coach, what are you doing?’ I said, ‘Hey doctor, not that bad. I just hurt my ribs. I’m just here to check it out.’ The doctor said, “Well, I’ll see you soon.” And that’s where it all started.”
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