My Sister in law Abbie moved to Sweden in 2018 to pursue her ice hockey career. As female professional athletes don’t receive full funding to live in another country, she took on an additional job at a school to help her pay for rent, food ect as Sweden is not a cheap place to live. Whilst working in the school, she became friends with a half Swedish, half Irish boy called Brandon which was very helpful whilst she was learning the language and couldn’t understand many other of her colleagues. They became great friends and he was always there for her, as you can imagine being in a foreign country and not being fluent in the language or knowing their processes can be a struggle. No surprise that their friendship blossomed into love and he was over meeting the family in no time. Safe to say, our family fell in love with him just as quick (if not quicker) than Abbie did. They were two peas in a pod, it was very clear we would all be ‘buying a hat’ very soon. In November 2022, Brandon was admitted into hospital with pneumonia. Further tests revealed that the original diagnosis was incorrect, and it was in fact cancer. It turned out to be an extremely rare form of cancer which was only identified after a few incorrect diagnoses. Sadly, by the time it was identified, it was too late for treatment and Brandon passed away on 30th April 2023 at 24 years old. A year to the day since his diagnosis, In tribute to Brandon, I will be taking part in the white collar boxing match, the charity im supporting is Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer (TYAC) with the hopes that no person or family will have to go through the same experience as us. Quote from Dale: “If I can show an ounce of the fight he had in him for the last 6 months of his life, then I’m sure I will make it through 6 minutes Win, lose or draw – This is for my bro.”