Brock University rallying around Milan Doczy in hockey player's fight against skin cancer

Three years ago, Milan Doczy showed a never, ever give up, indomitability when he took on the Ontario Hockey League and became the first European player to receive an education package to study and play hockey at a Canadian university.

For all of the emotional and mental strain that tussle with the OHL imposed, it pales in comparison to the Brock Badgers defenceman's battle with melanoma. The 24-year-old native of the Czech Republic was diagnosed with skin cancer in October. That led to his former junior team, the Owen Sound Attack, and a group at Brock University starting the Do It For Doczy fundraising initiative to pay for the alumnus' treatment.

The intense interfreron treatments that Doczy will need over the next 12 months are not covered under his student health plan and could cost at least $51,000. This week, the Brock University community is pitching in; campus pub Isaac's planning to turn over 50 per cent of its cover charges collected on Thursday, while proceeds from the Badgers' Friday home game, which is being promoted by Front Row Sports, will also be donated to a trust set up in Doczy's name.

"Within five or 10 minutes of meeting Milan and hearing his story, people's reaction is, 'what can I do?' How can I help?'," says Geoff Hoover, one of Doczy's professors at Brock's Goodman School of Business. "You look at the way he's carried himself through the whole ordeal and forget that he's a 24-year-old kid, just by his solid character and perseverance through the whole thing. I think everybody is impressed by that."

At this writing, the Do It For Doczy initiative has collected $19,700 toward its stated $50,000 goal. Those around Doczy at the St. Catharines, Ont., school say part of the motivation to help comes from seeing how their friend and teammate, while living with a cancer diagnosis, is doing everything possible to keep his nose to the grindstone as a student, where he averages 90 per cent in his classes.

"To see the way he's matured into someone who wants to get his schoolwork done is remarkable,"
says Brock captain Mike McGurk, who first knew Doczy when they were OHL teammates in Owen Sound in 2009-10. "Talking with Geoff and [Badgers coach] Murray [Nystrom], I don't know if I would be able to push through the way he is right now. His perseverance, to go through this diagnosis and not let it get him down, to keep pushing through with school and looking for a job in the financial industry after he graduates and be a normal 24- or 25-year-old, it's remarkable."

Doczy, as a young person in otherwise prime health who played at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, is also on what Hoover described as an "aggressive dosage." Not only is Doczy facing a hefty medical bill, but receiving interfreron can also affect one's ability to work.

"It's also not sure how someone's going to react to interfreron, because it has intense side effects," McGurk says. "He's going about getting a job for the summer, and if it knocks him out for the summer, well, he still needs to cover his rent for that month, too."

Donations can be made at milandoczy.com.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.