Hockey Community Supports Jenny MacDougall In Her Cancer Battle

In the heart of the hockey season, Jenny MacDougall focused on anything and everything related to Metro Girl. Instead, she is now skating away from the league and the sport. Instead of slapshots, she’s dealing with the dreaded c-word.

Let’s jump back to last October, as she learned she had a slightly off blood test as part of an annual checkup. The test was repeated 10 days later and the results were worse. At that point, MacDougall’s primary doctor stated that she needed to see a hematologist/oncologist, which she did on November 25, 2025.  

“My oncologist said I looked rather healthy and I had just played in my own game as a goalie,” 10 days earlier, she said.

The next morning, the doctor called MacDougall and said that her blood work didn’t look good and needed to do a bone marrow biopsy, which was done on Dec 9, 2025.

Two days later, her oncologist called to say he had some heavy news, which she said was not surprising as she just was not feeling well. He confirmed the blood cancer diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia (AML).  

“My initial thought was ‘Now what?’” MacDougall said. “I was shocked as I eat very healthy foods and tend to be rather active. My oncologist stated that AML hits people randomly and affects genes – it is not a genetic issue that one is born with, but a mutation of specific genes.”

MacDougall was told her AML could not be treated locally and that time was of the essence to begin treatment.

“It is a very aggressive blood cancer,” she said. “My first thoughts were to train everyone where I work as soon as possible as I didn’t have much time to show everyone what I do. Then I had to let Metro Girls (board members) and the chair for the AHAI Girls Committee know that I had to back away from my duties to focus on my health. I also play goalie for the Mother Puckers (adult league team) and it upset me to have to tell them that I would no longer be available for this season.”

MacDougall saw her oncologist on Dec 18 and he reported she has favorable AML, “which means the gene affected was able to be treated with chemo and eventually I should be cured,” she said.

MacDougall, 67, who lives in North Aurora, has been ever-present in Illinois hockey for 20-plus years. 

She started locally in 2002, leading multiple boys high school tournaments as her son then played for Naperville Central. She also was the team manager for the Naperville Central JV boys and the Team Illinois U12 girls where her daughter played.

“I joined the board for the Girls Central Hockey League which later folded as NIHL took over the girls’ teams,” said MacDougall.

“Girls high school hockey fell under the jurisdiction of the girls committee, but by 2006 or so, it was moved to the high school committee as the girls committee did not have the tools nor totally understood the high school side of girls’ hockey. At the time, it was the right move as the girls were able to have their own all-state games, become part of the goalie pool, and rules were changed to reflect true high school rules for the girls’ teams.

“At the beginning of the 2024-25 season, high school girls moved back to the girls committee having the rules for high school girls moved to the girls’ section of the rule book and keeping all the benefits of being a high school team, thanks to the partnership with the girls committee chair.”

In 2006, she formed the co-op Naper Valley High School, mostly as a high school hockey outlet for her daughter.

“We had a larger than normal number of schools as part of our combined team, as it has always been a struggle to get players from the Naperville area,” she said. “The city of Naperville doesn’t have a hockey rink – they have All Seasons in Naperville unincorporated, which is unusual for a city the size of Naperville. Today, Naper Valley still has too many schools to participate in the state tournament, but unfortunately there are not enough players from six schools to have a viable state tournament-eligible team.”

She was elected president of Metro Girls before the 2023-24 season.

ROAD TO RECOVERY
MacDougall was hospitalized for 32 days for induction chemotherapy, “an intensive inpatient treatment with the primary goal of achieving complete remission by eliminating leukemia cells from the blood and bone marrow,” she said.

She was admitted Dec 28 and went home Jan 28.

“I had some complications with the induction chemo where I ended up in the ICU due to septic shock, pancreatitis, liver failure, kidney failure, fluid around my heart and lungs as well as in my lungs,” she said. “I have about a week that I barely remember while in the hospital. Fortunately, I had excellent nurses and doctors and I pulled through.”

She had her third bone marrow biopsy on Jan 26 and was informed two days later that she was in the initial remission, which was the goal.

“I still have three rounds of what is called consolidation chemo where I will be admitted three more times – for four days each time, to receive chemo to ensure that all the blasts are ‘killed,’” she said. “I went from 80 to 90 percent leukemia blasts to 1.6 percent when I finished the first round. The consolidation chemo is to ensure that any leukemia that may be left in my bone marrow/blood will be gone. I currently have a nurse visit me at home weekly, physical therapy twice a week and occupational therapy once a week to work on regaining my strength.  

“Every day I am stronger than the previous day.”

The hockey community – dating back to her administrative hockey days in Alberta in 1991, then in Quebec from 1996 to 2001 – has stood by MacDougall like any loyal teammate. Their support has been overwhelming, she said.

“I celebrated New Years and my birthday in the hospital, so the league and my own team sent happy birthday wishes through a video. I didn’t realize that I knew so many people until I became sick,” MacDougall said.

Metro Girls set up a GoFundMe that she, admittedly, was reluctant to support, “but everyone insisted they wanted to help,” she said. “I greatly appreciated the extra funding as the medical bills are starting to come in, plus we had to board my dog for three weeks as it wasn’t possible to look after him properly while being so sick in the hospital.  

“I thank everyone for their generosity.”

 MacDougall was visited daily by her daughters, Kirsten and Carmen. Her son from western Canada flew in to spend a week helping his siblings and her son who lives locally has also been helping. “I have limited my visitors both at the hospital and at home to only my daughters due to reduced immunity to the outside world. My biggest fear is picking up an infection,” she said.

To support Jenny MacDougall: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jenny-macdougalls-fight-against-aml