Hockey Fights Cancer:  ‘We’re in bonus time’

By Anna Jauhola
A year ago, when Jeremy Pollestad was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, his family entered immediate fight mode. He went to all the appointments, had a tumor the size of a baseball removed from his brain and has been on chemotherapy and other drugs ever since.
He has now chosen to take hospice care as he is beyond his initial diagnosis of 12 to 14 months to live.
“I feel like we’re in bonus time,” said Erin Pollestad, Jeremy’s wife, who spoke on his behalf. “We’ve made it past a year. Anything we get past that is in the positive.”
Earlier this hockey season, Erin saw a Bemidji team played a “Hockey Fights Cancer” game, which raised funds for the American Cancer Society to go toward research for glioblastomas.
Erin said glioblastomas are non-curable mostly because they haven’t been researched enough.
“In clinical trials, they often don’t want you to have tried other treatment and people start treatment right away with glioblastoma. They want to know what’s working or not working, but there’s really no waiting period” between diagnosis and treatment. Typically patients go from surgery directly into treatment.
That’s why Erin began working with the regional American Cancer Society to set up a Hockey Fights Cancer game in Hallock on Friday, March 13 at 5:30 p.m. The Squirt B team, which Erin and Jeremy’s son plays on, will play the Grafton Squirt B team.

To read the whole story, see the March 4, 2026, edition of the Kittson County Enterprise