Beyond Brain Tumours

Hope, family, and community: A SUPERKID’s journey of unshakeable strength and optimism | Part 2

• Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada • Episode 12

Share episode

This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, meet 14-year-old brain tumour survivor Robbie Watson and his parents, Abby and Jeremy, as they share their incredible story. Robbie reflects on traveling for treatment and life after diagnosis with his signature positivity, while Abby brings the parent perspective and opens up about the uncertainty, strength and community support that carried their family through the toughest days. Together they talk about how their journey became a powerful story of hope and resilience. 


For additional information, you may visit: 

Kingston Grenadiers Rally Against Brain Tumours - Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada 

2024 Grens Tackle Tumours Robbie Watson Touchdown - YouTube 

Learn more about Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada at BrainTumour.ca. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and Linkedin.

SPEAKER_03:

Welcome back to Beyond Brain Tumors, a podcast of inspiration, hope, and support for the brain tumor community. I'm your host, Ben Seawald, Support Services Specialist at the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada. In this special part two of our conversation with Robbie Watson, our 14-year-old brain tumor survivor, and his parents, Abby and Jeremy, we will find out more about Robbie's childhood cancer journey. Robbie was diagnosed with a germ cell tumor in 2021 and is now stopping pucks and scoring touchdowns. In the next 20 minutes, we'll be discussing Robbie's life beyond his diagnosis and treatment. Robbie, what advice for others do you have for other kids to help them get through this kind of experience?

SPEAKER_02:

Just don't stop and just keep going. You no matter how hard it gets, you know you can make it through. Stay positive and just keep going. Don't stop.

SPEAKER_03:

Amazing. Do you watch any movies, listen to any music, uh lose yourself into hockey teams or sports?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I really like like music and art and performing arts and stuff like that. And I've only really done one sport, really. I've tried like other sports, but I've mainly only done hockey. And I've been goalie for five years now.

SPEAKER_03:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

Year coming up will be six.

SPEAKER_03:

And you have a favorite team?

SPEAKER_02:

I have a few.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

I have Chicago Blackhawks because my dad and my mom's dad got me to like them. And the Los Angeles Kings, because my hockey team is the Prince Edward County Kings.

SPEAKER_03:

Nice.

SPEAKER_02:

And the uh Ottawa Senators, because they were my first NHL game.

SPEAKER_03:

Awesome. That's that's a good list. Do you have favorite players?

SPEAKER_02:

My favorite player of all time is a goalie, Mark Andre Fleury. I think that's how you say his name.

SPEAKER_03:

The best. That's right. Awesome. And then you said you're a big Marvel fan. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, my dad and I have just always been obsessed with Marvel and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03:

Nice. So did you lean into that during all your treatment and everything else? You were watching those?

SPEAKER_02:

We mainly like binged one show over and over again on Netflix, which is and the show is called Superstore. Okay, it's just hilarious. My entire family loves it. And we've just watched it like the whole thing all seasons, like five times.

SPEAKER_03:

Amazing. I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

It started when we would have to stay in hotels for the three-day outpatient. We would literally like sit and watch Superstore episode after episode if he wasn't feeling okay enough to kind of leave the hotel. And it was just something the four of us kind of just got really into. So that was our that was our treatment show with Superstore. And we always made sure that the four of us were in the same room watching it together.

SPEAKER_03:

That's phenomenal. That's great. Yeah. Um, when you went back to playing hockey, did you have any special gear that you had to wear?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I just wore my classic goalie equipment, nothing special.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, cool. Um, so that's kind of uh focus a little bit on your hockey. Um, but you have played a second sport, and I happen to know that because you were the first Kingston Grenadiers football team super kid scoring a touchdown in 2024. What was that like?

SPEAKER_02:

It was really fun doing it and getting to that point and meeting everyone on the team and who helps with the team. And even now, when all the guys see me from all the age groups, they just keep interacting with me and they are all very nice guys, and they are awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I mean, you're part of the team, right? And that's what a team does, so yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's awesome. I know that you were a part of the 2025 event as the honorary captain tossing the coin for one of the games. So uh I look forward to seeing you in the 2026 event. I'm not sure how they're gonna involve you there, but uh yeah, I I think you're you're a part of that team forever, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um Abby and Jeremy, what was it like watching Robbie do that?

SPEAKER_00:

It was over emotionally overwhelming. It was he, I think he did the touchdown before he even rang the bell. So he did the touchdown and then he rang the bell that summer, that July. So I mean the touchdown was almost like his end of everything. We had been um medically okay for a few months, so that was really cool. And then seeing those kids, those football players, and the whole organization rally around him. Um even the opposing team, even the opposing team, and how they played along, played, and how they even kind of like at the end of it, they kind of all swarmed Robbie and were chanting Robbie and that the other team came in, and it was just it was overwhelming. Um, not a dry eye in our family, I don't think. Um, it was very it was like the end, right? For us, it was a bittersweet way to to finalize everything, and then he was okay to do that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so it was it was amazing, and then we ended up going to a couple of games after. Yeah, and when we would be in the stands, and he'd be he would just go down and be like, hey guys, they picked him up over the railing and brought him down to the sidelines. Like, that was insane. Like, I don't think I've ever I had never witnessed that. And I'm like, oh wow, like it was farthest I had been. Like, I'd stay up in the stands and he'd be on the sidelines, and I'm like, okay, is he okay? What do I like? Should I be hovering? Should I not be hovering? Should I be worried? Should I not be worried? Um, but they took extreme, extremely great care of him, and he had a blast. And then it was amazing to see them at the um the walk this year, yeah. Because the two events were separate, which I think that was amazing having the two events separate. They turned out so many people at both events that it was more than last year, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, and that was that was uh that was uh that was done on purpose last year. Um there wasn't the formal walk in Kingston, and so we kind of had to melt some stuff together, but uh this year we were able to have the the the walk separate from the the football game. Um, and I know Robbie is absolutely 100% a huge part of that team now and will always be. And so uh I know some of the coaches were telling me that he was calling plays from the sidelines and making suggestions, and um and there was one one play in particular that stands out. He says, You should you should have you should run this play. They're like, No, no, no, we've got it, we're gonna pass. And then after the play, they were like, We absolutely should have run. We we need to get Robbie on the on the coaching staff because he knows what he's talking about. So um, yeah, it was it's really been amazing to see uh from my perspective. Um, Robbie just kind of just get right in and feel comfortable with that, um, with that group and uh see them really uh take take him in. And um, he's a big part of that team. It's great. Abby, I want to I want to ask you about the Kingston Brain Tumor Walk in 2025. It went right by Kingston General Hospital. And you mentioned to me, looking out those windows at the people walking on those paths during Robbie's treatment. What did it mean to you to walk with Robbie on that same path in 2025, celebrating his strength and success?

SPEAKER_00:

I wish I could say that we walked together, but he ditched mom and was at the front of the line with the players. He told me to look amazing. Um but I think I I'm surprised I didn't walk into somebody because most of my time I was kind of looking up and reminiscing what it was like looking at him in the hospital bed sleeping because he was out cold from his treatment, and I'm just kind of looking out the window, going, I wonder what those people are going through on a day-to-day. And it was interesting seeing the people swimming every morning and the people walking along that path. And it was always a dream, I guess, that I would walk down there. It seems so weird um to say walking down a path was a dream, but I guess it was like being on the other side of the glass. Yeah. Um, so I did, and I wonder how many people in the hospital thought this lady was nuts as everyone was walking, and this lady's like looking up into the hospital. Um, but it was it was like a a ha moment, and it was amazing. And as much as Robbie wasn't with me, I did have some of my other kids that stuck with me. I was with you for a bit. Yeah. When I found you again, I was with you. He ran, so he did the whole thing, and then he ran back to me.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I still hadn't finished. Um, so it was nice, and it was just yeah, I don't know how I don't have the words, like I can't articulate the words of the emotion that it had being a brain tumor foundation walk, um, and being at KGH by the hospital, where most of the treatment was. Um, you know, I remember looking out the window and wondering if we were ever gonna end up making it and what it was gonna be like on the other end. And this summer, it was great. We made it, we're on the other end, and now those people in the hospital can wonder what I was doing.

SPEAKER_03:

That's right. I I love how you said it was kind of on the other side of that glass, right? And so I just that's such a powerful statement for being kind of on the other side of your treatment or the other side of your experience, your journey. Um, and to me, I think that's really, really powerful. All right, Robbie, any final advice for other kids currently going through brain tumor treatment or diagnosis?

SPEAKER_02:

Um most of what I said earlier, like don't stop. You like just keep pushing, you can do it kind of like classic t-shirt poster stuff.

SPEAKER_03:

And it's okay, it's okay to hate what you're going through.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, as long as you don't hate your life, you can always hate the situation that you're in.

SPEAKER_02:

Just don't hate you or your life. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

There's always a positive. Yeah, I always found the positive, and I helped other people find the positive, like her.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Um well, listen, Robbie. It's so incredible, it's such a pleasure to have to have gotten to know you and count you as one of my friends. Um, I'm just um thrilled to have this interview, and I look forward to the next time we can hang out for sure. Hopefully, we can get some uh Kingston Frontnacks tickets um and go catch a game. Um, and Abby and Jeremy, thank you so much. It's just uh it's such a pleasure to be able to amplify your story and to hear from you and to um get to connect again. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00:

No, thank you. Thank you. It's an honor being chosen, I guess, to be part of this. Um, we kind of got into the brain tumor foundation near the end. Um, so unfortunately, we didn't get to to yell from the rooftop from the very beginning. Um, but I remember when I did find out about it, it was the walk in Belleville, and I was like, hey, you know what, we're gonna do this. And uh the foundation has been an amazing thing. We completely stand behind it 100%, 110%. And uh we absolutely love what they do.

SPEAKER_03:

Amazing. Well, yeah, again, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your story with the brain tumor community throughout Canada. This is really special for me. In a world where the challenges of brain tumor diagnosis can be devastating, Robbie and his family are standing with the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada as a beacon of hope and transformation. Thank you so much. Stay hydrated and stay strong.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

So, just as an aside, the Kingston Grenadiers football team, in partnership with the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada, held the first annual Grenz Tackle Tumors event in 2024. This event honored the memory of their coach, Dale Sands, who passed away from a brain tumor, and everyone that we've lost over the years, also while celebrating the resilience and courage of brain tumor survivors in our community like Robbie Watson. Robbie was the first super kid and brain tumor survivor who took the field with the under-18 Grens. Before the official game began, Robbie dashed past the defense of the opposing team and scored a touchdown, symbolizing the strength and determination of all those affected by brain tumors.