Koivu Passes Remission Exam

by Robert L on Jan 26, 2007 4:55 PM EST

This is the best of news.

Five years and a few months after he was first stricken with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Saku Koivu has passed his five-year remission tests with flying colours, one of them an exam that was given on the machine he helped buy for the Montreal General Hospital.

The machine is a PET/CT scanner, a sophisticated cancer-detection unit that does positron emission tomography and computed tomography. The Saku Koivu Foundation raised $2.5 million of the $8 million required to purchase the scanner.

The five-year remission exam is the benchmark for cancer cures. In passing it, the man who has given hope and inspiration to countless others got his own good news. Now he has other things to think about - like a hockey game in Toronto tomorrow night.

Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette has been running a series on his his Top 10 All Time sports heroes.

Today's paper features Koivu in a piece titled: #4 Saku Koivu: Oh Captain, my Captain

"He has come to mean so much to this city, in part by taking life's hard knocks without complaint and leading Habs with his huge heart."

Saku Koivu wasn't chosen for the NHL All-Star Game this week - but he received a bit of beautiful news that is better than all the all-star contests for the rest of time rolled into one.

For the rest of the highly introspective article just link here.