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Las Vegas Golden Knights player Shea Theodore revealed that he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. The news came in a piece for The Players’ Tribune on Thursday, September 12. The diagnosis came three months ago after Theodore played for Team Canada at the Worlds.
As Theodore was pulled into a small room, he was informed that he had failed a drug test for hCG, a hormone usually only found in women during pregnancy.
Theodore was stunned, because he says he has never taken anything, but then he learned that hCG can also be a sign of testicular cancer. Just like that, his world was turned upside down. Theodore went to the doctors, had an ultrasound scan, and that’s when the tumor was discovered.
“The scan shows a five millimeter by five millimeter lump in your testicle,” Theodore recalled the doctor saying. “It’ll be a routine procedure. Once we take it out and do a biopsy, we’ll know more about the type of cancer. But you’re young, and we caught it early.”
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Shortly after finding out the news, Theodore shared it with his wife, family and teammates. Then, it was time for surgery, but not before a message from Phil Kessel, who went through a similar situation with testicular cancer and was able to recover.
“After the surgery, when the doctors were able to do a biopsy on the mass in my testicle, they found that it was a mixed germ cell tumor: embryonal and seminoma, stage I. While the embryonal component can be very aggressive and spread to abdominal lymph nodes, mine was caught early because of the comprehensive blood testing they conduct at the Worlds,” Theodore said.
“If I had not taken that test, and then if the cancer had gone undetected for a few more years..… I don’t even want to think about how differently my life could’ve turned out. Whether or not you believe everything happens for a reason, what happened to me really feels like a miracle.”
Theodore hopes that his story will raise awareness to the issue and that he will be working with the Golden Knights and Golden Knights Foundation to be an ambassador and advocate for supporting the cause.
You can read his entire story on The Players’ Tribune.
We wish Theodore a full and speedy recovery.
