Barnstable and Upper Cape lacrosse teams bring Childhood Cancer awareness to Cape Cod

Mayah White and Emma DaSilva are teammates on the Barnstable High ice hockey team, but they share a bond that's deeper than playing on the rink.

White and DaSilva were both diagnosed with cancer before the age of 16.

White, 17, was diagnosed at the age of 14 with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma. She was a freshman at the time.

“It was hard to believe at first and a little denial for a while,” White said. “Then, I got tossed into treatment pretty quick, and then it became more real, but scary and confusing.”

DaSilva, 15, was diagnosed more recently with lymphoma, receiving the news last month.

'Is it actually real?'

“I don’t really understand or know why or how,” DaSilva said. “I was also in denial, and asked ‘is it actually real?’”

Each day, 47 children are diagnosed with cancer in the United States, which means more than 17,000 children in the U.S. are diagnosed each year, according to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer.

A good way to bring awareness to this cause is by hosting fundraising events.

Ally McEneaney’s 18th Birthday

Ally McEneaney also plays on the hockey team, and is best friends with White and DaSilva. Her 18th birthday was on Thursday and she celebrated in a special way.

McEneaney is senior captain for the Barnstable girls lacrosse team which hosted Cape Cod Academy.

McEneaney decided to make the game against Cape Cod Academy a Childhood Cancer Awareness event to help shed light on what her friends are going through.

“It was something that meant a lot to me, and I didn’t know what I could do to help them,” McEneaney said. “This one thing I figured I could do to help other kids like them, if I couldn’t help them directly. Them trusting me of what’s going on with them is a big part of it.

McEneaney and senior captain Carly Steenstra had gold (childhood cancer color) shirts made with two lacrosse sticks on them in the form of an “X” and a white cancer ribbon in the middle of them.

She also had gold bracelets made, with the help of her teammates, that had the word “hope” on them.

Barnstable sold the bracelets for $5, and raffle tickets (1 for $5 or 3 for $10) for a chance to win prizes from local businesses. All proceeds will go to Tommy’s Place, which is a nonprofit that offers vacation homes for kids fighting cancer and their families for no cost.

“It means a lot watching her go through the process of preparing for this game,” Barnstable lacrosse assistant coach Caitlyn Sweeney said. “She did everything from sending the emails to making the signs, organizing everything, like asking people for raffle prizes, so she put in a lot of work and effort into it, which was inspired by her friends.”

The game raised $1,000, and some members of the lacrosse team will present the check to Tommy’s Place this week.

Barnstable lacrosse head coach Tara Palermo said that this event is a great cause and that it will get people aware of the problem.

“That's what Ally and this team is trying to do, bring awareness,” Palermo said. “Unless you go through it, you don’t really know what it is, and I think by people attending this game today, they’ll have a better understanding of what it is.”

A winning goal with five seconds left

In her pre-game speech to the crowd, McEneaney said White and DaSilva are the strongest people she knows and that she would be playing for them.

What better way to end her birthday on this awareness night as she scored the winning goal with five seconds left for a 10-9 Barnstable win.

Despite the loss, Cape Cod Academy head coach Andrea McKnight said it was a privilege to take part and bring awareness to the cause.

“Women’s sports in general is growing expeditionally and a lot of the fundraising and awareness efforts were done by boys in the past, but now that girls sports are growing in attendance, who is coming to our games, and also the amount of girls participating in these sports, all that’s going to happen is better things moving forward for everybody involved,” McKnight said.

Still part of the team

As for White and DaSilva, they still have hope for the future.

White cannot play hockey as of now, but she is still a part of the team as they still let her come to games.

“That meant a lot also to be treated the same as them (teammates),” White said.

DaSilva started treatment a couple of weeks ago.

“I'm going to hope to recover fast and get stronger and come back stronger,” DaSilva said. “Your mindset changes and you realize more important things and you become mentally stronger and more aware of things.”

McEneaney is graduating this year, but she hopes the event is not a one-time thing for not just Barnstable, but the entire Cape.

“I hope other teams see how good of a turnout it was and it's able to go on for the next few years.  We have girls on the team that are freshmen and I hope they see this and want to do it the next four years,” McEneaney said.

Upper Cape Lacrosse

Two days after Barnstable hosted their event, Upper Cape high school hosted its first ever ”Lacrosse Out Cancer Jamboree Event” to raise awareness for pediatric cancer research as both the boys and girls lacrosse teams hosted games.

Upper Cape had at least three kids diagnosed with pediatric cancer this year alone.

“We wanted to put something together that we can make an annual event,” Upper Cape girls lacrosse head coach Alaina Greene said. “It’s great to play a league rival (South Shore Tech) for a great cause.

Prior to the games on Saturday, they raised over $1,000 in donations. After the event Saturday, they raised over $3,000 in donations for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.

"As a coach, my mentality is that sports are so much more than wins and losses,” Greene said. “Me as a former athlete too, you're learning lessons that are valuable for the rest of your life. So being able to find a greater good and greater cause and do something as a team, I think is really beautiful.”

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @CJ_Journalist.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Barnstable, Upper Cape lacrosse host Pediatric Cancer Awareness games