One day Oskar Lindblom was on top of the world. The next, he was facing a battle for his life.

Such was the reality when the then 23-year-old went from living his dream of playing professional hockey – he’s a forward for the Philadelphia Flyers – to undergoing treatment for Ewing’s sarcoma. Sarcomas are a rare form of cancer in adults, accounting for only about 1% of cancers, but more common in children – accounting for 15% to 20% of cancers.

Ultimately, however, Lindblom beat Ewing’s sarcoma, thanks in big part to the chemotherapy treatments he received at Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center. He returned to playing for the Flyers last season. More importantly, he’ll turn 25 years old in August.

Still, neither he nor the Flyers and their charity wing – Flyers Charities – forget the harrowing physical and emotional battle that went into overcoming the cancer.

That’s why they’re committed to helping propel the fight to defeat Ewing’s sarcoma – a mission they advanced recently with the help of branded merchandise in the form of message T-shirts decorated with the phrase “OskarStrong.”

The Flyers sold the T-shirts, styles of which featured a cancer ribbon and Lindblom’s jersey number 23, at games this past season and during other fundraising initiatives. Then, on Wednesday July 14, the Flyers Charities donated a $50,000 grant – money generated from the T-shirt sales – to Dr. Margaret Chou and her team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Drs. Margaret Chou & her team were awarded a grant from @CureSarcoma in honor of Flyers forward @oskarlindblom who was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in 2019. The grant was funded by the @NHLFlyers community & will advance Dr. Chou's research in Ewing's sarcoma. @FlyersCharities pic.twitter.com/Xxy8t5Bc1m

— Children's Hospital (@ChildrensPhila) July 14, 2021

Chou, an associate professor and cancer researcher, will use the money for research aimed at defeating Ewing’s sarcoma, which she said patients often pass away from within five years if they don’t respond to chemotherapy. Chou and her team are working on formulating a cancer immunotherapy treatment that will knock out Ewing’s sarcoma.

“This will help us move research forward on this type of cancer at a really critical time,” Chou told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “This is a really rare cancer. Not a lot of people have heard about it, and that’s a problem. If people don’t hear about it, they don’t care about it.”

Officially known as the Philadelphia Flyers Community Research Grant in Honor of Oskar Lindblom, the grant was formally awarded through the Sarcoma Foundation of America.