February 17, 2022 was a special date for Rebekah Stott in more ways than one.
Her return to international football came as New Zealand played Iceland at the SheBelieves Cup in the United States, five days after the one-year anniversary of her Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis on February 12, 2021.
The occasion meant a lot to Stott, – just as it did to Alison Gale, a software engineer based in Seattle, who flew to Los Angeles to watch Stott take the field in her international comeback.
In the second half Stott’s number was raised on the substitutes board, and the moment became a reality.
Sat in the stands, Gale held aloft a sign that read:
“Go Stotty!! Thanks for helping me beat Hodgkin’s!!”
“That game happened to be scheduled on the one-year anniversary of when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,” Gale told KEEPUP. “That’s part of what motivated me: it being on that date and then Stotty being called up, it’s sort of what made me commit to going on the trip.
“I booked the trip less than a week before I flew out but the stars aligned, it was meant to be.
“I think as a cancer survivor a lot of times things are measured in one-year survival, two years – it’s milestones of being able to make it that long past the diagnosis. So I think that date was really special for me, I wanted to do something to celebrate it and I felt this connection with Stotty because our stories are so intertwined; we’ve shared the same experience.”
Gale’s Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis came on February 17, 2021 – six days after Stott heard the very same news in her own life.
Three weeks later Stott shared her news with the world, encouraging people to follow her journey through a detailed blog titled ‘Beat it by Stotty’; a place for Stott to share her story, with all the key moments of the last year documented through words and imagery.
VISIT: Beat it by Stotty
Whilst urging herself to ‘beat it’, Stott was unknowingly encouraging Gale to do the same.
“The blog was a huge part of it,” Gale said. “Having cancer as a young adult, it’s pretty isolating, it’s not an experience a lot of people can relate to. Especially during COVID, when it’s physically isolating and I wasn’t able to interact with my friends and do the same things.
“I think a couple of weeks after my diagnosis, seeing her post it was like ‘oh my gosh, this is exactly what I’m going through’. It sort of makes it feel a little less lonely, you feel like there’s someone who I could read their story and I almost could have written it myself.
“It made me feel like I’m not alone in this, I’m not the only one having this experience.”
Gale is a season ticket holder at National Women’s Soccer League club OL Reign, formerly Seattle Reign and once a home to Stott as a player in 2017.
A defender when playing recreationally, Gale would watch on from the stands and applaud Stott’s impact in her side’s backline.
Five years later, Gale got to see the former Reign star in the flesh once again as New Zealand prepared to face Iceland. Gale held the banner aloft when the Football Ferns emerged to warm up, Stott’s team-mates alerting Stott about what they saw and applauding Gale as they did so.
After the full-time whistle, Gale shared a moment with Stott which made the venture down to California ‘one of the best trips ever’.
“It was amazing to watch her when the coach was calling her to sub on to the game I was getting goosebumps, I was so excited for her,” Gale said.
“It was such an amazing experience. I thought it would be great just to be at the game, and even if there was a chance she wouldn’t even play, just to be there for the first time she was called up.
“But to see here actually get subbed on… and to have her come over and chat with me for five minutes after the game, I feel like it’s going to be one of my favourite trips ever.
“I was telling her how amazing it was to see her out there, we were able to talk a bit about our experiences.
“It was weird, it was like being able to talk to somebody and you have this shared context, and you don’t have to explain anything… you can just talk about something like going through chemo and what it was like, or the side effects or dealing with mental fatigue or something like that.
“She was like ‘oh, I know exactly what you’re talking about’.
“Being able to connect with someone who I feel our stories are so inter-connected and we’ve had such a similar shared experience… it meant to so much.”
