Image

February 10, 2016

It has been an unbelievable February for the Lypko family.

It has been unbelievably difficult after they learned on Feb. 1 that mom, Leanne, had cancer in her spine and lung.

And it has been an “unbelievable” uplifting as the hockey community is rallying around them to help.

The Lypko’s son Jordan, plays with the Petrolia Oiler Bantam Reps with Nick Salaris’ son. He has known for a couple of weeks that something was wrong with his friend.

“We went from seeing her one week at the arena , seeing her the following Friday coming to the arena with a cane, to seeing her the next week with in a wheelchair,” says Salaris. Then came the horrible news of Leanne’s cancer. This week, Leanne started radiation treatment.

Any cancer diagnosis is tough, but Salaris was particularly moved by the Lypko’s plight.

The family, he says, are “salt of the earth” who never ask for help even though life isn’t always easy. Leanne’s husband, Adam, has a chronic hip condition and is waiting for his third transplant. He’s not able to drive. And he hasn’t been able to watch his sons play hockey for a while now.

So Leanne would go to the rink and Salaris says like every minor hockey team, the Lypkos who moved to Petrolia less than a decade ago, became part of the hockey family.

“I call it the hockey family. We’re together six months a year, together three or four nights a week… we get to know these kids get to see them from when they were six or seven until when they’re in high school…and that family becomes your support network.”

So when Salaris heard of Leanne’s cancer, he got to work. He heard about an internet fundraising program called GoFundMe and set up a page hoping to raise $5,000 for the family’s expenses but he set the goal hirer at $10,000. “The simple fact is that the prognosis is not good,” Salaris wrote. “The awful news about Leanne is also coupled with the fact that Adam has not been able to work or drive for past number of years due to a crippling and degenerative hip condition. Understandably, this is a heavy burden for the family.”

In 10 hours, the goal was reached.

By press time, over $27,000 had been raised to help cover the family’s extra expenses and a new goal had been set – $50,000.

“I’m surprised but I’m not because in this town when people are in need, they rally around people to help,” says Salaris noting help has come from every corner including Wyoming Ball where Jordan and his brother Eric play, and even the Bantam Reps friendly rival Mooretown Flags.

“I’m shocked that our little hockey team could go out and make $20,000 in two days … but I’m not surprised because this town has a tradition of helping and caring for people in need.”

Adam Lypko is more than surprised. He calls not only the fundraising effort but also the offers to bring meals to the family and to clean the house while Leanne undergoes treatment are simply “unbelievable.

“My two brothers and sister in law came in from out of town and they can’t believe the response the community has given,” he tells The Independent.

Adam says the news has been particularly difficult for Jordan and Eric but the family is making through with the help of their family and their hockey family.

“Coming from a town like Hamilton being bigger – this is more of a family kind of place,” he says. “It’s more of an extended family…It is unbelievable. I can’t believe the outpouring of help were having

“It’s what it should be like for everyone…if we had this sort of thing across Canada we could help families more and more.”

You can find the fundraising campaign called For Leanne at https://www.gofundme.com/52m7beak

Share This

Image
Front Page

Lancer Athletes honoured

June 19, 2025

Heather Wright/The Independent Nearly 400 students competed in sports at LCCVI this year. That as the school honoured its athletes June 11. Top students in each grade and sport where honoured and special honours were given out to seniors graduating this year. Katelyn Nicholson, Ryann McAuley, Darius Landon and Tyler Collins were recognized for their acheivements in sport over the

Read More

Image
Front Page

Petrolia Flyers hand out year-end awards

June 19, 2025

Goaltenders Ethan Everaert and Elijah Grant were named co-MVP for the PJHL’s Petrolia Flyers at the team’s awards banquet on the weekend. The duo combined to win 40 regular season and playoff games for Petrolia backstopping the Flyers to its first-ever Yeck Division championship. Meantime, Ethan Flintoff and Tobias Iantorno shared the Ron Tyler scholarship award while Flintoff was chosen

Read More

Image
Front Page

PW abandons Egremont Road appeal

June 19, 2025

Heather Wright/The Independent Tyler Struckett was surprised to learn a developer plans to start working on a subdivision behind his property this summer. The Egremont Road resident and his wife, Erin, successfully convinced Plympton-Wyoming Council to appeal a decision blocking the developer from placing entrances on Lakeshore Road for the 275 homes to be built between Egremont and Lakeshore Roads.

Read More

Image
Front Page

Construction on new Lambton College residence to begin this month

June 19, 2025

The Independent There will be a new student residence at Lambton College, but it won’t be owned or operated by the educational institution. Lambton College has struck a deal with a private equity firm and a construction company to build and operate the long-planned college residence. In a news release, officials say after four years of planning, the college has

Read More