ANDY BAGGOT Insider Related Content • Varsity Magazine

BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider

MADISON, Wis. — The call came while Wisconsin men's hockey coach Tony Granato was conducting practice early last month.

Once he retrieved his phone and saw the caller ID, he reached back immediately to hear a tale of crisis.

At the other end was Pauline Hughes, the mother of junior winger and assistant captain Cameron Hughes. She was calling from Edmonton, Alberta with some ominous news about one of her four sons.

The youngest, 10-year-old Ethan, had just been diagnosed with kidney cancer and was awaiting surgery.

A battery of tests had located a Wilms' tumor — the most common form of pediatric kidney cancer — in Ethan's right kidney. The placement of the mass, right in the middle of the organ, meant physicians would have to remove one of his two kidneys.

Pauline asked Granato, the first-year UW coach, if he could be with Cameron when she called to break the news to her oldest son.

She felt comfortable doing so, even though she hadn't formally met Granato. She said "wonderful" feedback she'd received from Cameron helped drive the decision.

"Tony was right beside Cameron when he picked up that phone," Pauline said, adding she'll be "forever grateful" for how the moment was handled.

What Pauline didn't know was that Granato once got a similar phone call. It also involved a younger brother. It also included a cancer diagnosis. It also left him reeling.

It was February of 2005 when Granato learned his brother Don, three years younger, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. More than a decade later, Don is now one of his brother's associate head coaches along with Mark Osiecki.     

"You feel lots of things when that first call comes," Granato said. "It stops you right in that second. You need somebody to turn to."

Cameron, a 20-year-old known for his calm, reserved nature, was thankful for the support. His mother worried that he'd be upset that someone else had been told about the delicate situation ahead of time. That concern was eased during a follow-up conversation.

"He asked if I'd called (Granato) ahead of time," Pauline said.

Yes, she said, noting that Jayne Lindauer, the program assistant who oversees the hockey office, had been told as well.

"Mom, that was a good call," Cameron told her. "Coach Tony was right there for me as soon as I got off the phone."

As you might expect, the news was jarring, in part because it came out of the blue.

"It happened so fast, we really couldn't think about it and that's how I think we've gotten through it," Pauline said.

"It was kind of shocking," Cameron said. "To hear that was pretty scary. I think we're handling it as best we can."

In a span of 10 days, starting Oct. 9, Ethan went from playing in a youth hockey tournament in Calgary to noticing blood in his urine to doubling over in pain and being admitted to the hospital.

At various points Pauline wondered about appendicitis, or if Ethan had been hurt somehow playing in the tournament.

"Ethan probably plays tougher than all the Hughes brothers," she said, referring also to 17-year-old Ryan and 13-year-old Liam. "He's constantly being pushed around."

Cameron will vouch for that.

"He's probably 10 times tougher than I am," he said of Ethan. "He's a stubborn little guy."

A day after the tumor was located via ultrasound, Pauline and her husband Brian were given a presentation about the Wilms' tumor.

They learned that it's rare in adults and that a majority show up in otherwise healthy children. They learned that it's highly responsive to treatment. They learned that early removal tends to lead to positive outcomes.

As soon as Cameron got the news, he face-timed his youngest brother to see how he was doing. Ethan had to be scared, right?

"Yeah, but he's a tough little kid," Cameron said.

"He's grown up playing with three older brothers for his whole life. He doesn't like it if we give him an inch. If we ease up on him he'll get mad."

At one point during a whirlwind of tests, Ethan calmly told medical staffers that any one of his brothers would sacrifice a kidney for him if needed.

"Cameron was the first one to say, 'I'll give you my kidney,'" Pauline said. "I'm sure the other two would, too. It's just that Cameron was on the first phone."

Ethan underwent a three-hour procedure Oct. 26 to remove his kidney and physicians told Pauline and Brian that the cancer appeared to be contained within. He was discharged from the hospital earlier than expected, but not before he spent long stretches face-timing his big brother, talking and playing video games.

Cameron and the Badgers were traveling in upstate New York at the time, going against non-league opponents St. Lawrence and Clarkson. At one point, the brothers were conversing while Cameron was getting treatment for a lower-body injury. There also was a two-hour conversation after one of the games.

"Stuff like that calmed him down," Cameron said. "You could tell he was a little restless in the hospital and he wanted to get out. All 10-year-olds are probably like that."

UW sophomore center and captain Luke Kunin not only skates on the same line as Cameron, they room together on the road.

The youngest of two boys, Kunin appreciated the brotherly dynamic from a respectful distance.

"He's really close to his family and really cares about them," Kunin said of Hughes.

Kunin said Hughes is stoic and that "you can't really notice when things are wrong with him."

This time was different.

"He was a little shaken up, like anyone of us would be," Kunin said.

The matter has not prevented Cameron from averaging a point a game for the Badgers (5-3 overall) heading into a non-conference series with Merrimack (4-5-3) on Friday night and Saturday night at the Kohl Center.

"It's life," Kunin said. "There's adversity. You're going to have challenges you're going to have to face in life when unexpected things happen. It's just how you handle those."

Ethan was discharged in time to go trick or treating — he wore a red Wisconsin Hockey hoodie for a costume — and was doing stick-handling drills in the garage within 24 hours of returning home.

"Something that could have been really, really bad — it was quite serious — so far everything is going good," Pauline said. "That's because of all the positive thoughts that we've had from people thinking about us."

Cameron credits his mother for keeping everyone on a positive, even plane. 

"She's always optimistic with everything," he said. "She's seen a lot in her day with the four boys because we all had our injuries. She keeps an even keel."

Ethan is now in the midst of a recommended 19-week chemotherapy protocol designed to make sure the cancer is gone. It's scheduled to end in March.

The good news is that Ethan's prognosis is excellent and he'll be able to play hockey again. Cameron saw the downside during a recent face-time segment with his brother.

"You could tell the chemo put his energy down," Cameron said.

Nevertheless, it looks like a frightening episode is moving toward a positive conclusion.

Pauline Hughes was impressed with how her son's new coach handled the moment.

"Absolutely fabulous," she said of Granato.

"Mrs. Hughes was good because she gave me enough information to be optimistic and help Cameron understand that it's a tough thing that Ethan is facing, but there are a lot of positives as far as the prognosis and how it can be treated," Granato said.

"I'm glad Mrs. Hughes called me to prepare me. Just to be there and give Cam a little hug and a pat on the back and tell him, 'We're there for you.'"