Hunter Drouin ’26 couldn’t wait for the start of his second season with the Colgate Men’s Lacrosse team.
While he’s itching to build on a promising first year and help the Raiders win the conference, there’s another reason why season No. 2 is significant to the native of Derry, N.H.
A much more personal reason.
Drouin is a cancer survivor. And now he wants to use his story to give hope to others with the disease, and to help raise money for childhood cancer research.
Each season, the team selects a good cause for raising awareness or donations. This year, the team has partnered with Lacrosse Out Cancer, a nationwide campaign that helps lacrosse players to raise money for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. The campaign hopes to raise $100,000.
Men’s lacrosse will seek donations throughout the season and provide a check to the foundation at the team’s final home game against Boston University on April 26.
For Drouin, he’s thrilled for the opportunity to support childhood cancer research. As of Feb. 6, the team had raised more than $15,000.
“It means the world to me that my teammates and my coaching staff and the coaching community are as invested in childhood cancer research as me,” he said.” Most people know someone who has had cancer and a lot of people know people who lost their lives to cancer.
“I want to give back to the people who gave to me. Even if it saves one life, it will be 100 percent worth it.”
Today, Drouin is living life as a college student with no effects from the cancer that made his childhood anything but ordinary.
FIGHTING A RARE CANCER
As a toddler, Drouin showed no outward signs of cancer. He was a happy, healthy kid living a normal life.
Then his life and that of his entire family changed days before his third birthday. It began when he was wrestling with his 5-year-old brother, Mason.
As the two children tussled in their living room, they fell to the floor. Mason landed on top of Hunter Drouin, who immediately began crying. The crash had triggered a sharp, fiery pain in his stomach. His mother picked him up and tried to ease his discomfort. She held him until he fell asleep.
The hope was he’d feel better after a good nap. But things only got worse.
While Drouin was asleep, he started heaving. His skin turned cold and clammy, sending his family into a panic.
He was taken to the local emergency room, where he was examined for cracked ribs, a ruptured spleen, and other potential injuries that could have been caused in the fall.
No such injuries were discovered. Drouin was transported to a children’s hospital in New Hampshire, where the family was told that a ruptured tumor was found in his kidney. The condition was called Wilms tumor, a rare kidney cancer that generally affects children.
In Drouin’s case, emergency surgery was needed to remove the organ before the tumor spread further. The surgery was a success, but Drouin still had to complete months of chemotherapy and radiation before he was cancer free.
Life would slowly return to normal for Drouin and his family, though every five years he needed blood tests to ensure the cancer had not returned. Drouin has been in remission for the last 16 years.
“If my brother didn’t land on me that day, then who knows what would have happened,” Drouin said. “The reason they caught it was because he landed on me. It’s scary to know that stuff like that goes unnoticed.”
Much of Drouin’s memories from his fight with cancer are a blur. He remembers his mother trying to play down each visit to the hospital for his treatments so as not to alarm him, making it seem like it was a routine trip. He remembers looking in the mirror, seeing his bald head and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world.
It wasn’t until he was in high school that he understood the severity of his condition and the torment it placed on his family. The experience became a valuable lesson on life and family.
“One thing I learned is how important family is,” he said. “I had cancer, but I couldn’t do anything myself. I had to put my faith in my doctors and family.”
As Drouin learned more about the disease, he came to realize the strength his family had shown to get through the ordeal.
“All around the world, there are 47 kids every single day who are diagnosed with cancer,” he said. “That means 47 families have to hear that they might lose a child, which is scary stuff.
“Learning how mentally strong my parents were through this whole process, my brother and sister, and the support they had around them between their friends and co-workers was incredible. What they did for our family was really huge.”
While Drouin was treated for cancer, the family received overwhelming support from friends, co-workers, neighbors, and complete strangers.
People brought food and gifts to the family’s door. They built a new swing set in the yard. They raised money. People volunteered to watch the children, care for the dog, and maintain the house during the many days when everyone was at the hospital.
Drouin is grateful for the support his family received, and said his fight with cancer was not an individual struggle, but one that an entire community shouldered.
“It’s a team battle, not just an individual one,” he said. “It takes a whole community to beat this disease. I had cancer but I feel the fight involved everyone — my friends, my family.”
It would take time for Drouin’s life to return to normal.
He grew up as an active boy, playing various sports. In high school, doctors restricted him from playing football, fearing an impact to his back could damage his lone kidney. But he was cleared to play hockey and lacrosse, so long as he used extra padding for protection.
He went on to excel in lacrosse, piling up goals throughout high school until his talent caught the attention of Colgate.
