It was October 2024 in Alaska, and hockey icon Ron Duguay was shoveling snow at the home of his girlfriend, former Governor Sarah Palin, when he began to feel ill.
He’d lost his appetite, began to lose weight and wasn’t sleeping well. After returning home to Florida, his doctor suggested a colonoscopy.
Further testing confirmed the worst: Stage 4 cancer. But what normally and understandably would shock a patient didn’t faze the now 68-year-old former center, who played hockey in an era where play was rough and fights were common.
He just had to take up fighting again. Only this time, it was against a more deadly opponent.
After keeping his battle private for months, Duguay’s daughters encouraged him to let them set up a GoFundMe to raise money for a wealth of alternative treatments he’s considering. They’ve already blown well past their goal as fans of the ’70s star show their support.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Duguay and his daughter Shay Thomas revealed the lengths to which they’re fighting, the treatments he’s receiving and the message of hope he wishes to spread as his battle against this horrific disease continues.
Hockey icon Ron Duguay opens up to the Daily Mail about his struggles with Stage 4 cancer
The New York Rangers icon from the 1970s and ’80s has been undergoing a battle for his health
Duguay has long been romantically linked to former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
From his home in Florida, Duguay flashes a bright white Hollywood smile at the mention of his ‘friend’ Palin, the glint in his eye making his feelings toward her clear.
Various reports have long described the pair as a couple, but Duguay tends to share little about his relationship with the former Vice Presidential candidate, opting instead to keep his private life exactly that.
Thomas reveals they are ‘very close,’ adding that ‘they haven’t been able to see each other as much lately because of what my dad is going through, and Sarah also has obligations caring for her son, Trig, who requires additional care.’
‘I go there at different times,’ Duguay himself explains. ‘I help with her landscaping in the summer, and I help in the winter clearing a little bit of snow, so I happened to be there in October… but unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling myself, so I had to leave.’
When he received his diagnosis, he hit the ground running with chemotherapy and traditional cancer treatments. His daughters live across the country in California, where they set him up with oncologists at the Los Angeles area City of Hope Hospital.
‘I was just all in – go hard, let’s hit this hard,’ Duguay remembers.
While he referred to Palin has his ‘friend,’ she has been seen at his bedside during treatment
The pair have been linked since 2022, but have kept their relationship largely private
But such travel has taken a toll. Treatments happen every two weeks, forcing the former New York Rangers star to fly back and forth across the nation routinely.
He briefly stayed at his ex-wife’s house in Laguna Beach before finding a place to live in Huntington Beach while being treated.
‘I stayed there for about a month, so I was out there for about five weeks while I was going through the worst,’ Duguay says. ‘And once I started feeling a little better, I felt like I needed to come home [to Florida].’
While chemotherapy has been working for him, Duguay says he lost both his gallbladder and his appendix during the course of his treatment. Given the Stage 4 diagnosis, his cancer requires an extremely intense fight.
With that in mind, Duguay has tried seemingly anything and everything to battle his cancer – including ‘Japanese wonder-drug’ ivermectin, which has not been FDA approved to target the disease.
In search of a solution, he has embarked on a series of wacky pathways, including regularly filtering his blood through an ozone machine, which he says removes acidity as ‘cancers and parasites and all that don’t like an oxygen state.’
Duguay’s cancer began in his colon, but led to the loss of his appendix and gallbladder
Duguay has undergone various alternative treatments, like pumping his blood through an ozone machine and taking drugs like ivermectin and methylene blue
Duguay was clearing snow at Palin’s Alaska home when he felt unwell, leading to his diagnosis
Additionally, he began taking doses of methylene blue – a drug that’s FDA approved to treat blood disorders – after hearing actor Mel Gibson preach its effect on cancer while appearing on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.
‘He had friends, three of them [at] Stage 4, and they started doing methylene blue, all cured, all gone,’ Duguay says. ‘So I’ve been doing methylene blue, I’m gonna do a little bit more now. I could do that probably minimum once a week.’
But that’s not where his search for alternate treatment ends. Duguay reveals he is considering traveling to treatment centers in either Mexico, Russia or Germany where he will have his diet and activity monitored and restricted.
At these centers, Duguay says he could also receive hyperbaric chamber treatment or be shocked with an electrical frequency.
‘Some of these things are not allowed in the United States yet,’ Duguay explains. ‘I think they’re [eventually] going to have to be to keep up.’
While he finds it promising, it’s also very expensive. The treatment center in Mexico, for example, costs between $40,000 and $50,000 for 30 days of residency.
Duguay’s treatments have required him to travel from Florida to California every two weeks
His daughters, Amber (left) and Shay (right), set up a GoFundMe for him – with an amazing response
But the response to his daughters’ GoFundMe page has far exceeded their expectations and made such treatments a reasonable reality.
After initially setting a goal of $26,000, the family has raised over $111,000 for Duguay.
‘My dad never wanted to ever mention the stress of his finances,’ Thomas tells the Daily Mail. ‘But I could feel it and see it and the things that he was going through in the conversations that we were having.
‘With his numbers jumping up again, we just felt as a family that we needed to reach out. And so many people were asking how they could help.’
Now, Duguay’s hope to find alternative treatments is a reality thanks to the generosity of others.
‘In our family, we’re very much like, “We’ll figure it out,” you know, and… we got to that point and so I just made [the GoFundMe] and the outreach and the love has been so amazing, and we’re just so grateful,’ Thomas says.
‘So many people have reached out. We see the names of donations of people that we’ve grown up with, people that we haven’t even talked to in a while… this has been such a relief.’
Shay Thomas tells the Daily Mail Duguay is ‘very disappointed’ with the Rangers’ lack of response
Duguay is closest associated with the team and has been an ambassador for decades
But while an outpouring of support has been felt through kind words and donations, silence has also disturbed the former hockey star and his family.
Speaking on behalf of her father, Thomas reveals that the New York Rangers have been particularly quiet, and that the former Blueshirts star and MSG Network analyst is ‘very disappointed’ with them.
‘Over the past four years, the organization has hardly used him for any work or involvement, despite the fact that he served as an ambassador for the team for approximately 25 years and has given so much of himself to the Rangers throughout his career and long after retirement,’ Thomas tells the Daily Mail.
‘Given that history and loyalty, this has been especially difficult and hurtful for him during this time.’
The New York Rangers did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on Duguay’s claims.
But Duguay has heard from former rivals, like New York Islanders icon Brian Trottier
While he may be let down by his former team, Duguay has been directly contacted by some surprising sources.
He recalls that an old rival of his, former New York Islanders star Bryan Trottier, asked him about his battle roughly two days after Duguay lost his appendix.
‘He says, “I’m gonna make a call.” So, he called the NHL Alumni [Association], the NHL Alumni called the NHL,’ Duguay explains. ‘And so, they’ve been helping me with my travel – the expenses of travel. So the NHL and the NHL Alumni have been wonderful.’
Duguay admits that accepting kindness from others has been hard for him, and Thomas says her father’s faith in God often leads him to hiding his struggles.
But in going public, Duguay has learned to receive that support. He hopes to use to spread a message that others should get screened for colon cancer, as well as to help him return to the charity work he had been so involved with before.
‘I’ve been having to be reminded, as Shay is doing now, that you have to accept it,’ Duguay says. ‘You’ve given, and you need to accept it; and that what they keep telling me is that they want to help.
‘It pleasures them to want to help. So I have to look at it in a different way, versus I’m just receiving. Well, they’re giving, and they’re happy to give. It makes them joyful to be able to help.
Duguay says he’s changed his mindset after initially pushing back against receiving help
He hopes to heal soon so he can get back to doing charity work for others
‘So now my mindset is, “OK, I’m gonna accept this,” because this has been lingering on too long. And I need to get better quickly so I can go back doing what I was doing before, and I’m gonna do a lot more of it now.’
That mindset change also applies to his overall approach to recovery.
‘It was all meant to be, because I was waiting to get an answer to, “Why am I going through this?” It’s almost unfair,’ he says. ‘Because I take care of myself, I’ve been a good role model, and then now I realize, OK, as a Christian, man, I realize sometimes God will use certain folks to help others.
‘So now… I want to quickly get better, but this has really helped me mentally… it’s opened my eyes to different things. It’s going to allow me to do… I’m not quite sure yet what I’m gonna be doing, but it’s gonna be giving back.’
