‘Cruising for Cancer’ highlighted by New Kent resident’s battle against disease

Nickolas Brucker shared his story of his battle against cancer at Saturday's "Cruising for Cancer" awareness event in New Kent.

Robb Johnson photo

As the ongoing fight against the deadly disease known as cancer continues, many people are stepping up to the cause to put on unique events to raise funds to support research and find a cure. New Kent Field Hockey Cristen Sickal is one of them.

Sickal organized the “Cruising for Cancer” event held Saturday at Pine Fork Park. The event consisted of field hockey games, a blood drive, and other awareness raising activities.

“This is huge because, for one, I love all the support for the sport and girls, and I love everyone is coming out to support Nick with everything he is doing to give back to families in need going through the worst times of their lives dealing with cancer.”

The Nick that Sickal spoke about is Nickolas Brucker, a 35-year old New Kent native who graduated from New Kent High School in 2007. Brucker was living a normal life until July 2020 when he went to an emergency room. There, Brucker said doctors discovered that he had stage four colon cancer and had a tumor the size of a baseball.

Since that diagnosis, Nick has had 12 surgeries and started chemotherapy this week once again, his 57th treatment. Nevertheless, Brucker remained positive, attending the organized event and encouraging people to continue to fight to find a cure.

“Staying positive, controlling what I can control as far as my diet, my health, and my exercise is what keeps me going,” Brucker said. “I wanted to give back to my county.

“They don’t know why I was really diagnosed with cancer,” he continued. “So, being able to help others who have cancer gives me a purpose to put my energy on and not to figure out what all caused this.”

Brucker said the event organized by Sickal is just a stepping stone in encouraging others and continuing to fight for a cure.

“Keep putting one foot forward in front of the other,” Brucker added. “Just keep moving. My only rule that I have is just don’t quit.”

For more information or to make a donation, visit www.cruisingforcancer.org.