Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – When she hits the court on Friday for the Griffins' Shoot for the Cure game against Saskatchewan (5 p.m., David Atkinson Gym), Ayla Grady will be shooting for two people in her life.
Cancer has affected thousands of families across the country and the U SPORTS initiative – which has raised $1.85 million for the Canadian Cancer Society since 2007 – continues to help.
Grady's grandmother Heather Armstrong had breast cancer and beat it, while a father figure in her life – Trevor Derekson – unfortunately just passed away.
"Recently, about a month ago, a close family friend, who was like a father figure to me passed away due to cancer, so it was pretty tough," said Grady. "He was a huge figure in my life and that was a struggle."
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Grady noted Derekson looked out for she and her two younger sisters and was like family to her.
"I have an absent father in my life, so my mom was friends with who he was married to, and we went on a lot of family trips with them to Mexico and to Kelowna," she said. "We just spent a lot of time with them and he, at a very young age, just stepped in there. He was very close.
"He very much looked after me and my other sisters. He was very much a father figure in our lives.
"He was just a huge role model for me – just handled things very well. Even when he was undergoing all his cancer treatments, he still very much looked out for us. He had two sons, as well."
And Grady has made a commitment to looking out for them, as well.
"I will still try to reach out to them and do as much as I can to make sure they're taken care of," she said.
That's exactly what Derekson did for others around him.
"It was the best attribute about him," said Grady. "He very much put everyone before himself. I had an absent father in my life and never had a good image of that, so for him to treat us like that, it was very moving."
As for this weekend, Grady will also be thinking about her grandmother, who came through the dark days of battling breast cancer.
"For me, that really reaches out to my grandma's experience and how she was able to undergo all those treatments and make it through," said Grady. "Raising that money is really important to me because it ended up saving my grandma's life.
"It's hard to see loved ones go through that, so it's really cool to see her make it through all those treatments and be as active as she is today," she added. "We go on hikes with her now, whereas before it was 'let grandma rest.' So, it's really cool to see through two summers how it's translated."
The Griffins will also host the Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday (3 p.m., both David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
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The Huskies (12-2) come in as defending Canada West champions and are currently ranked No. 4 in U SPORTS. The Griffins (0-14) will be aiming to build off their last game; although it was a 66-39 loss to UFV, they did a lot of things well for a team that only had eight healthy players.
"I thought Saturday night was, performance-wise, one of our best of the year," said head coach Katherine Adams. "We're continuing to build off that and look at the metrics we use to determine success and hopefully we can continue to improve in those areas. No better test to do that against the top-ranked team in Canada West and the fourth-ranked team nationally."
