Canadian Para Ice Hockey Star Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

Raphaëlle Tousignant is one of the best women's para ice hockey players to compete for Canada, ever. Tousignant fought her way to prominence in 2023 becoming the first woman to ever play for Canada's national men's para ice hockey team.

Now Tousignant has another, bigger fight ahead of her after the Canadian star announced this week that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"About a week ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I've been here before. I've faced challenges on and off the ice that have shaped me into the person I am today," Tousignant wrote on Instagram. "I've learned how to fall and how to stand back up. I've learned how to breathe through pain and hold onto hope. And this fight won't be any different."

Tousignant, a member of Canada's national women's para ice hockey team has fought cancer before, having her leg amputated at age 10 due to bone cancer.

Only 23, Tousignant is a veteran of Canada's women's program including winning silver this year at the first ever official Women's Para Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia. Alongside her teammates, Tousignant has bigger goals ahead, including being able to compete at the Paralympics. Tousignant had hoped that goal would be achieved as a member of Canada's men's team in 2026.

"These next months were supposed to be the final push toward the Games a chance to earn my spot," she wrote. "And I'm not going to let this stop me. I don't know if it's realistic or even possible anymore. And honestly, I don't want to know right now. What I do know is that every workout and every ice time has a new meaning. They're my fuel. My focus. My "why." Who knows how it will all unfold, but I will know that I tried until the very last second to make my dream reality."

"This is another chapter in my story not the whole story, not the end of it. I'm taking this one day at a time, surrounded by love, strength, and a fire that hasn't gone out. I'm ready."