Para hockey player Raphaëlle Tousignant, the first woman to compete for Canada in a major international competition, says she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I never thought I would say these words again – not now, not in the near future. But life has other plans,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday. “About a week ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I've been here before. I have faced challenges on and off the ice that have shaped me into the person I am today. I learned to fall and get up. I learned to breathe through the pain and remain hopeful. And this fight will be no different.”
When she was 10 years old, Tousignant had her leg amputated due to bone cancer.
The forward from Terrebonne, Quebec, made the Canadian women's para hockey team at age 14, quickly becoming one of the program's top players and, in 2023, becoming the first woman named to Canada's World Championship team.
CBC Sports caught up with Raphael Tousignant, teammate Tyler McGregor and head coach Russ Herrington ahead of the 2023 Para Hockey World Championships in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Now 23, Tousignant was aiming to become the first female para hockey player to compete for Canada at the Paralympics at the 2026 Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, in March.
Paralympic hockey at the Paralympic Games is technically mixed, but only three women (two from Norway and one from China) competed in the Games, despite teams being allowed to increase their rosters from 17 to 18 players by adding a woman.
Despite her diagnosis, Tousignant says she will still strive for this dream.
“The next months were supposed to be the final push towards the Games, a chance to earn my place. And I won't let that stop me,” she said. “I no longer know if this is realistic or even possible. And honestly, I don't want to know right now. What I know is that every practice and every ice time has a new meaning. They are my fuel. My goal. My “why”.
“Who knows how it will all unfold, but I will know that until the very last second I tried to make my dream come true.”
Tousignant also helped Canada win silver at the inaugural Women's Para Hockey World Championships in Dolny Kubin, Slovakia, in August.
“This is another chapter of my story — not the whole story and not the end of it,” she said. “I take it one day at a time, surrounded by love, strength and an undying fire.”
