‘Not just a hockey game’: Windsor first responders battle cancer together

Windsor police officers and firefighters are ramping up a friendly rivalry and lacing up skates for a cause that hits close to home: funding local cancer research.

The inaugural Battle of the Badges, a charity hockey game pitting the Windsor Police Service against Windsor Fire & Rescue Services, will take place Feb. 4, 2026, at the WFCU Centre on World Cancer Day. All proceeds will support local cancer research initiatives.

Fire Chief Jamie Waffle said cancer remains the leading line-of-duty health risk within the fire service.

“In the fire service, cancer is obviously near and dear to our hearts,” Waffle stated. “It is our number one risk factor for injury, for line-of-duty deaths.”

Waffle said the impact is not theoretical, noting the department has lost members in recent years to job-related cancers and currently has several active firefighters undergoing treatment.

“We have several members who passed in recent years due to cancer-related causes from the job,” he said. “We currently have five, six members right now in their own lives battling certain levels of cancer.”

He added the service is working closely with fire leadership and firefighter associations across Ontario to improve cancer awareness and prevention alongside the province.

Windsor police Chief Jason Crowley echoed the personal toll cancer has taken within his service and the broader community.

“This is such a great event,” Crowley said. “Everybody has been affected, and we’ve all heard that, and it couldn’t be more true.”

Crowley said what sets this initiative apart is its direct benefit to the Windsor-Essex region.

“The fact that this is going towards cancer research and forwarding our own community, that money stays here,” he said. “The most important piece is that community piece that stays here and the research that we all desperately are looking for.”

Proceeds from the game will help fund cancer research at the University of Windsor and regional hospitals, including work supported through Play For A Cure and the Cancer Research Collaboration Fund.

University of Windsor professor and cancer researcher Lisa Porter said locally raised dollars play a critical role in advancing research already underway in Windsor.

“One of the things that Play For A Cure does really well is that they take the funds that are raised here and they get matching funds, and all of that money stays here in Windsor,” Porter said. “It directly supports how we do research. The reagents, the student salaries, all of the kinds of things that we need to move our research question forward.”

Porter said researchers at the university, Windsor Regional Hospital, and Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare are working collaboratively across the full spectrum of cancer care, from prevention to treatment and survivorship.

She also highlighted the significance of specialized equipment housed in the university’s Centre for Research Excellence building.

“In this building right here, the CoRE building, we have equipment that doesn’t exist everywhere in the world,” Porter told CTV News. “This is a place where we’ve been able to ask cutting-edge questions, and those questions can lead directly into patient care.”

Event organizer Jeff Casey, founder of Play For A Cure, said the event is rooted in personal experience. Casey was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 17 years ago, the day after his daughter was born.

“I was diagnosed with cancer at what you would call the exact wrong time,” Casey said. “But as much as it’s just a hockey game, it is not just a hockey game.”

Casey said the true value lies in the awareness, hope and community support generated by the event.

“A cancer patient at the cancer centre is going to see that the community cares,” he said. “It’s going to generate and foster their hope.”

Casey estimates selling 3,000 tickets, combined with sponsorship support, could raise $70,000, which would be matched to create an operational research grant in Windsor in 2027.

“Because you purchased a ticket, that money’s going to go towards cancer research and help find more cures,” he said.

Casey said following his diagnosis and recovery, supporting cancer research became a way to give back.

“I was given this opportunity to survive,” he explained. “Now I’m carrying on and trying to raise funds and awareness to support local cancer research so we can create more survivors and better outcomes for our cancer patients.”

Courtesy: https://www.ctvnews.ca/windsor/article/not-just-a-hockey-game-windsor-first-responders-battle-cancer-together/