"Nah, Sign My Head" - How the Preds Helped One Fan Battle Cancer

If you've ever been to a Predators game at Bridgestone Arena, you've probably seen the photograph at the top of this story.
The picture resides at the Nashville Predators Foundation area outside Section 106 on the main concourse amongst a collage of Preds players doing work in the community over the past two-plus decades. In this particular photo, Shea Weber is beaming as he signs the bare head of a young Hockey Fights Cancer ambassador from a game back in 2011, undoubtedly the first time the former Preds captain had ever received that type of request for a signature.
The charismatic young man with the room-brightening personality, who decided to use his cranium as an autograph pad, is Marshall Billingsley.

He was 16 at the time, a junior in high school diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that grows in the bones or soft tissue. An athletic teenager, Billingsley thought the pain he was experiencing in his right hip was simply due to a rugby injury, or perhaps too much training. After rest and medication did nothing to help, however, an X-ray was followed by an MRI and then a biopsy at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
"They gave me these four possibilities, and the last one they mentioned was Ewing sarcoma," Billingsley recalled. "And so, my nosy little self went onto Google and started googling all this stuff up. And at the time, I was like Ewing sarcoma matched it perfectly - male teen, hip area, bone, etc. So, I was like, 'Mom, Dad, it's Ewing sarcoma,' and then in the biopsy they were like, 'Yeah, it is Ewing sarcoma,' and I was like, 'Oh, crap. I did get it right.'"
Billingsley had a tumor on his right ilium bone as well as 12 tumors in his lungs. He received the news on Oct. 4, 2010, and shortly thereafter began to endure a total of 14 rounds of chemotherapy over six months, plus a surgery to remove his ilium.
Understandably, the process was difficult for Billingsley. Teenagers don't expect to be on the athletic field one day and fighting for their life the next. But, some days at Vanderbilt were better than others thanks to a few visitors who would stop by from time to time.
Long before his diagnosis, Billingsley was a Predators fan - so much so that when his parents told him to go to bed at the start of games when the team was on the West Coast, he would retire to his room and pick up the radio feed on his boombox. So, when now-former players like Jordin Tootoo, Martin Erat and Weber would show up at his room, Billingsley forgot, even for just a moment, what he was going through.

"It meant the world," Billingsley said of the player visits. "You're going through this crappy time, there's a lot of unexpected, not sure what's going to happen, you hate going to the hospital, but you have the guys visit a place you don't want to be, and it just makes the moment so much better. You can tell these guys cared. It wasn't just for publicity. They really care about the kids there."
Pekka Rinne was there too, the early years of what has become a passion for the Predators goaltender. Rinne and Billingsley made a connection - as the netminder does with just about everyone he meets - and Rinne was thrilled to see the young man down near the Predators locker room in March of 2011.
Hockey Fights Cancer, a League-wide initiative dedicated to raising awareness and funds to help those battling the disease, has become a staple among NHL organizations over the past 22 years, and the Preds have always supported and celebrated those who are in their own personal fight. Nine years ago, it was Billingsley who received the invitation to be the organization's Hockey Fights Cancer ambassador for a Predators home game.

Billingsley remembers meeting Preds broadcasters Pete Weber and Terry Crisp, as well as a locker room tour from Steve Sullivan and J-P Dumont as highlights, but the lasting image came when Weber offered to sign the young man's jersey, just as the rest of his Predators teammates had done.
And then the best part, of course, was that picture because Shea was like, "I'll sign your jersey." And I was like, "nah, sign my head, dude."
"It was just a spur of the moment, and Shea was like, 'I'll sign your jersey,' and I was like, 'Nah, sign my head,'" Billingsley chuckled. "And he just laughed and was like, 'OK!'"

The photo was snapped in the moment and has now become one of the more recognizable images to represent the good that comes from the Preds Foundation. Billingsley experienced it firsthand all those years ago, and when he walks the arena concourse nowadays, it's a reminder of everything he's been through and all that he still wants to accomplish.
Now 27, he's studying biology at Middle Tennessee State University with a passion for healthcare and taking care of people after what he experienced at Vanderbilt, and what he's reflected on in his own life too.
"When I was going through chemo, it was like I was in a job where you go for treatment, and you're getting kicked by this one thing," Billingsley said. "And afterwards, that's the hard part. I was like, 'Dang, what just happened?' And then it kind of felt like I didn't have a true childhood or teenage years. I guess anger would be a good word… and now I'm totally fine. But there was a lot of growth between 2011 and 2015 of me just kind of realizing what had happened, and then growing from there and applying it to everyday life and just being grateful to be alive."

Those visits from the Predators, and his fandom everyday before and after, has helped keep him going at times. The current climate prevents the Preds from making those in-person visits at the moment, but they've been doing so virtually, and Billingsley knows the work done by his favorite team at Children's Hospital means more to the patients than the players could ever know.
I guess what I would say to everyone one is, 'Thank you so much,'" Billingsley said. "You can just see the smiles, and whether the kids are a year old, or 12 years old, or even 16 or 17 years old like I was, it just means the world. I can't put words to describe it. I'm just kind of speechless with what to say with regards to that."
Billingsley had a recent email correspondence with Rinne, the goaltender still remembering his friend all these years later. The biology major says he hopes to see Rinne out and about one day just so he can reminisce once more and tell the co-founder of the
365 Pediatric Cancer Fund
how much his dedication means to everyone who has been affected by the disease.
Chances are Rinne would remember Billingsley, too. The 365 Fund's other co-founder sure did.
"I actually ran into Shea Weber a couple of years after my treatment," Billingsley said. "I was working at a restaurant, and he walked in with his wife before the Olympics in 2014. But I was like, 'Hey, remember me?' And I covered up my hair, and he was like, 'Oh, hey! I signed your head!'"