Mike Filer was in excellent spirits all morning while he sat in an office chair in front of family and friends, the buzz of the clippers setting his monstrous beard free-falling to the floor in slow motion.

A six-year CFL vet, all of them spent with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Filer looked out to the small audience in front of him at the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, cracking jokes and asking how his new look was shaping up.

“I’m terrified,” Filer said before he sat down. “I haven’t seen my face in eight years. You should be terrified too.”

There was a brief moment or two, though, where the jokes stopped and his gaze seemed to shift past those in front of him. Surrounded by some of those closest to him, he looked at times like he was a world away as the clippers buzzed over his face and the stylist combed through and cut his long locks.

“There’s a lot to say about my mom. She was amazing, hard-fought, so much courage, never gave up. She fought for nine years. It’ll be a year Jan. 25,” he said of Kim Filer, who fought and eventually lost her long battle with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma at the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre.

“It’s been a tough year but I knew there was something I wanted to do to honour her on her behalf. I think the money we raised over the last month and a half was unbelievable and I know she’d be very happy, smiling right now.”

Before he drastically changed his look on Wednesday morning, Filer presented the hospital a cheque for $22,190. The money raised will go toward the hospital’s stem cell transplant unit expansion. Filer had his grooming done in the soon-to-be-built wing of the hospital. It’s all concrete, exposed pipes and pillars right now, but the hospital is hoping to have the expansion complete in 2019.

In her battle with cancer, Kim underwent a stem cell transplant. It improved her quality of life, said her husband, Greg Filer.

“The type of cancer my wife had was an incurable cancer. What we were looking for was extending her life in a positive way and it did, it did that,” he said.

Both father and son beamed about the treatment the entire family got from the hospital in their years visiting there. They want to make sure that they can help both expand the reach of the hospital for patients that need it, and so that families affected by cancer can be supported they way that they were. The family raised funds together in 2017 and donated to the same cause.

“We were so fortunate with Dr. (Grame) Fraser here, an incredible man,” Greg said. “The support we received from all the staff, everybody, it was just unbelievable.

“I don’t think word gets out enough about what happens in this building. Until you live it. And unfortunately we lived it for years. Here we are and we’re so happy to be able to give back.”

“Part of the reason why I wanted to do this is every time we walked through those doors it was just the feeling of relief,” Mike said. “You’re in great hands, well taken care of. The doctors, the nurses, support staff, everyone rallied and made sure you and the individual involved, in my case it was my mom, made everybody feel at ease.

“It’s obviously very stressful times and difficult times and that was one of the most memorable things, was how everyone treated you here. Not only me and my dad, but my mom. It was an eye-opening experience.”

Kim loved the Tiger-Cats, Mike and Greg said. Seeing Mike make the team and run onto the field on game day gave the entire family memories they’ll hold onto forever.

Greg remembers a point in 2016 when the family knew that Kim’s time was running out. The Ticats gave them a suite to watch their son play.

“It was a cold game in October (2016) and my wife was in a wheelchair at that time. She was absolutely adamant that she was going to go to the game. I was reluctant because of the situation,” Greg recalled.

“She didn’t miss a play on the field. She really wasn’t feeling well at that time but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t important. What was important to her was watching Mike. You could certainly hear her cheer a lot when he was out there. I have that picture and I refer back to it quite frequently to spark that memory. It’s a great memory.

“She wouldn’t sit inside, she sat outside in the cold. Sometimes I wished she’d sit inside so I could have sat inside because it was pretty cold,” he laughed, “but she was adamant. ‘We’re going to sit outside and watch this game.’ She didn’t miss a play, especially when Mike was on the field. Those memories stand out in my mind, for sure. It was great.”

“I still look up at her at Tim Horton’s Field in the stands and see her standing there and smiling and smacking her cowbell around. That’s what I have left. I don’t have much more than that,” Mike said.

“Pictures and memories. There’s a lot there and I know that she was an avid Ticat fan through and through. She’ll keep living on inside of me and I cherish what I have.”