Cancer patient inspired by honor as 21st Duck

ANAHEIM --Katie Hawley was sitting in Section 201 at Honda Center during a game between the Anaheim Ducks and the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 22, matter-of-factly detailing the recent adjustments in her chemotherapy doses and the sneaky nature of her particular cancer, neuroblastoma.
But something on the ice caught her eye.

"You're OK, Brandon, get up!" she said, offering encouragement to Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour.
The 17-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, was doing what she could to help pick up the Ducks, the team that found its way into her heart, picking her up at some of her lowest moments and helping her find the will to continue fighting the disease after it returned for the third time.
Hawley attended the game against the Golden Knights during Hockey Fights Cancer month and has been an important symbol of inspiration for the Ducks players and those who have become familiar with her story.
She was part of the pregame ceremony at the Ducks season opener on Oct. 5 against the Arizona Coyotes, introduced as the 21st Duck, an honorary spot on the opening-night roster designated for a fan who exhibits great perseverance, character, courage and inspiration.
"I keep telling my mom, I want to go back to that day," Hawley said. "Seriously, a fairy tale. I still even dream about it."
Hawley had told Ducks center Rickard Rakell he needed to score.
"He was like, 'OK,'" Hawley said. "[Forward Corey] Perry was behind me and I looked at him and said, 'You need to score, too.' And they both ended up scoring."
Anaheim defeated the Coyotes 5-4, rallying from three goals down and Rakell scored the game-winner with 3:30 remaining in the third period. The video of Hawley celebrating from a suite with family and friends was unforgettable and she was raspy from cheering by the time she and Rakell were interviewed on TV after the game.

"I think both of us want to score," Rakell said, of himself and Perry, a few days later. "I'm not going to say push a little bit extra. But you're hoping for a little bit extra because of her."
Hawley, a senior at San Juan Hills High School, sensed Rakell had something that special something when she watched the Sweden-born forward in pregame warmups last season.
"I used to be a soccer player," she said. "And I was very confident about it. I saw that passion in him, playing, and gravitated to it, 'Hey, he's going to score.' And he scored in the game."
Katie's father, Bob, was her soccer coach when she started at age 4. The talented midfielder kept improving and joined the ranks of high-level club soccer in Orange County. But Bob noticed a dip in her energy level on the field in the winter of 2009, and that summer, when she was 9, a malignant tumor was found in her abdominal area. She had four surgeries, six cycles of chemotherapy and 12 rounds of radiation, which led to two years of remission.
The cancer returned twice, most recently in December.
"My biggest concern is her mental state and wanting to fight because last time she relapsed, it was a very interesting conversation that I had with her about not wanting to fight," Bob Hawley said. "It broke my heart hearing my daughter talk about maybe God is calling her. I said, 'You don't know that yet.'
"A little bit was emotion. I think a lot was emotion.
"It still was a very heartbreaking thing for me to hear, that my daughter wasn't in a mindset of, 'OK, I beat it twice, I'll beat it again.' She was ready to concede."

Prayer and deep faith, plus a visit from the family pastor and his leadership team, helped her find the will to look forward, Bob Hawley said.
Hawley and his wife, Mary Kay, agreed the opening night experience for their daughter at Honda Center was "huge."
"It was probably one of the biggest nights of her life," Bob Hawley said. "Now she's only 17, so hopefully there's a lot more ahead for us. No doubt, it was just a big, big night for us.
"I looked at my wife at the end of the night and said, 'God wrote this script.' This was a script written for us and Katie."
Before Rakell first met Katie Hawley a few days before the season opener, he sent her a video offering her encouragement. The modest Rakell is still coming to terms with being an inspirational figure.
"I still look up to other hockey players and to believe that someone looks up to me is pretty incredible and surreal," Rakell said. "With Katie, I'm just trying to be as helpful and supportive as much as I can."
Hawley got out of the hospital a few days before the Ducks game against the Golden Knights. That day had been a good day. She felt good and spent most of it at Disneyland. She has undergone numerous experimental treatments in New York and San Francisco. But now there are additional health concerns and understandable feelings of anger and frustration.
"A lot of stuff has been happening with my health," Katie said. "They found out that my heart looks off. And that's never happened before. They're going to redo the heart test.
"I've just been getting kind of angry. I want to get that out by punching something. It might as well be a punching bag. Someone bought me punching gloves in the seventh grade. I even did a photo shoot with pink boxing gloves."

The fame from the opening-night game has brought messages of support on social media from Canada, Germany and, naturally, Sweden.
"That's so sweet, and so cool," she said. "People from the other side of the world are contacting me."
One question stumped her. Why has hockey given her so much inspiration?
"I have no idea," she said, laughing. "I can't even skate. I can't ski. I can't do anything on ice. But it was just a way for me and my dad to bond.
"At first, it was baseball. Then we got bored. So we would come to hockey games. We've always loved the Ducks."