POINTE-CLAIRE – Early Saturday morning, thousands of people gathered in Pointe-Claire village to participate in the first edition of Pointe-Claire’s half marathon.
But in the large crowd, a few young kids stood out.
The Pointe-Claire U12 soccer team ran in honour of a very special person – one of their coaches, Ben Vezina.
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“I was diagnosed with T-ALL, which is T-cell acute lymphoblastic lymphoma,” said Vezina. “It also gets classified as leukemia, it depends on the age.”
Since February, Vezina’s been in and out of the hospital, on and off chemotherapy.
He’s now waiting for a stem cell transplant, which should take place in the next few weeks.
And so on Saturday, the kids he coached before his diagnosis, banded together and ran in his name.
“It’s sort of pride,” said player, Ryan Zhou.
“I’m proud to run for my coach cause he went through a lot, surgery and that – so we want to help him, support him.”
Vezina has been coaching some of the players for years now and was even their fitness coach.
“When we were young, he sort of helped us through soccer,” said Zhou.
“He ran with us, he would train with us, tell us ‘run two kilometres and do 10 push ups’ and it would be fun – everyone would laugh.”
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As each player reached the finish line, Vezina stood by, cheering each one.
When talking about the players and the team, Vezina explained that they mean “everything” to him.
In addition to participating in the marathon, each player raided money, which the team will collect and donate to the Canadian Cancer Society.
“The number one reason why I coach these boys is to teach them soccer but it’s also to teach them to be good young men when they grow up – and this is part of it,” said head coach Philip Bernardino.
“It’s part of doing something for your community and doing something for someone.”
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