When Matt Matheson received the difficult news that Chris Nordell was diagnosed with stage four renal cell carcinoma, which has metastasized to his lung, he knew that he and the entire Vancouver Island golf community would need to swing into action.
Swing being the operative word.
Matheson, a Class A PGA of Canada Professional and GBC Golf Academy Instructor at Olympic View Golf Club, is himself a survivor, having fought testicular lymphatic cancer 12 years ago at the age of 20.
With Nordell — the title sponsor of the Vancouver Island Pro Tour and close friend — now battling the disease, Matheson and colleagues came up with the idea of a charity golf tournament, set for Friday at Olympic View to raise funds for alternative methods of tackling Nordell’s current fight with the disease.
“Not well,” Matheson responded when asked how he took the original gloomy news from Nordell back in mid-July. “No one wants to hear it.
“You hope it’s all a bad dream, but it wasn’t,” Matheson added, rolling back tears. “On the same day, I told him, he’s not going to get rid of me and we’ll beat it, because I had friends that did that for me.”
Now, the entire golf community is rallying around the treasured friend they call Nordsy, who is also known as the Tooth Guy, who operates James Bay Denturist, and is entering his fourth year as title sponsor on the VI Tour.
The Day for the Tooth Guy, as it is dubbed, begins Friday with a 10 a.m. shotgun tournament for between 100-144 golfers. More than 80 have already signed up for the $125 event that includes, golf, cart, breakfast sandwich with coffee station, followed by a steak dinner and charity auction.
Side games like a 50/50 and a unique wine raffle (where everyone brings a bottle to be raffled off at $20 a ticket with the winner taking all the hooch) will also be held. Those who are unable to golf can enjoy the dinner and auction for $50. All funds raised will assist Nordell in his treatment.
The fun, four-person scramble is a way to assist one of their own, says Matheson, which is not lost on Nordell, 44, who is currently on a drug trial that has temporarily halted the tumor in his kidney.
“I have no words to express my appreciation. This doesn’t happen every day,” said Nordell. “It’s the power of the golf community in Victoria.”
It’s the reason Nordell took on sponsorship to keep the VI Tour going. Golf and the camaraderie were and remain a big part of his life, which he is in a battle for.
“I love golf and have such a passion for it. When I found out how the boys struggled to find good solid sponsorship, I reviewed how my advertising budget was or wasn’t working for me,” he said.
“Suddenly, after a year of that, I had some of the best friends I have ever had in my life and it had nothing to do with being a sponsor. That’s the way they are — good, quality people.”
Together Matheson and Nordell have formed a strong bond, now being threatened by cancer.
“It’s stage four. It’s not early detection,” Nordell said of his diagnosis, made July 15.
The lanky six-foot-five man started noticing weight loss this year.
“It was more rapid. I’ve always been a slim guy so for me to lose 40 pounds in a three-month stretch is a big deal. In February, I was 198 pounds, now I’m 147 and holding,” he said.
Renal cell carcinoma is a rare form, which makes up roughly four per cent of all cancers, and also requires a different treatment process, explained Nordell.
“I’m on a drug trial that I qualified for. It’s a real toxic med. After the first session I didn’t feel it was working hard enough so I asked them to up it a little bit because I was able to muscle my way through the side effects,” he said.
As far as North American medicine goes, this is currently his best bet, but because of the limitations he has looked into alternative treatments which, of course, are not covered by the B.C. Medical Services Plan.
“One treatment that I’m very serious about is immune therapy offered in Germany. He’s had great success with what he calls the Big 4 — prostate, brain, lung and breast [cancers],” Nordell said of the foreign doctor. “He wasn’t able to give much information for me, the only thing he could tell me is it is non-toxic, so if I try it I’m no worse off if it doesn’t work.”
Because of the success with other cancers, both Nordell and the German physician are excited about tackling his renal cell carcinoma.
“But I’m midway through my career in life, so I didn’t have a lot of money saved to all of a sudden spend upwards of $200,000 to live in Germany and have cancer treatment,” said Nordell. “So after cashing everything I could figure that I could cash in, I was still short a bit and that’s when the boys came up with their idea.”
As it stands, his median life expectancy is two years.
“I’m not the type of guy who listens to that stuff, so that’s not the plan,” Nordell said of the fight. “If the immune system therapy works the way they say it does in Germany, in the cases he has documented, the ones it really worked on are cancer free, not just in remission. It’s gone.”
And now he has the golf community fighting his battle.
“It was a crazy day when I came in to tell everybody. These past few months the guys have been so generous to me and encouraging,” said Nordell.
“I’m just absolutely blessed,” Nordell said of having Matheson and Co. along.
And there’s still room to get involved as a player or sponsor or auction contributor. Anyone interested can contact Matheson at Olympic View or via email at [email protected].
“I’m just helping out. Friends do that for each other, right,” said Matheson, who has received auction items from the likes of PGA player Brad Fritsch of Ottawa and local Cory Renfrew, who is heading to the third-and-final stage of qualifying for the Web.com Tour, and other pros that he wants to keep a surprise for his buddy, the Tooth Guy.
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
