Chicago father of two plans to continue coaching youth hockey as he fights incurable cancer

EVANSTON, Ill. (WLS) -- Michael Truskoski, 41, is more grateful than ever for every moment with his family.

His daughters, 3 and 7 years old, have an idea that their dad is sick, but it is hard to understand that Daddy has incurable lung cancer.

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"You look at him, and he's so normal and healthy. But he is not," said Hannah Johnson, Truskoski's wife.

"I've been trying to be as normal and do as many normal things as I can," Truskoski said.

And that includes coaching youth hockey, something he has been doing for most of his life. The team is his second family. And he is leaning on both families to help since learning he has stage 4 lung cancer after he had a seizure at work just over three weeks ago, the result of cancer that spread to his brain. Doctors performed brain surgery and were able to remove that tumor.

"Found out it was the secondary tumor. It was not the primary tumor," Truskoski said.

The primary tumor is the lung cancer.

"His cancer is not curable. It's something we're going to manage," Johnson said.

Truskowski is planning to continue to coach while be battles the cancer. In fact, he says support from his hockey family has been and will continue to be essential.

"When you get the level of support that I have, you want to go back as quickly as you can," Truskoski said.

The town of Evanston is celebrating hockey days this weekend, and Coach Mike is thrilled to be back in the familiar surroundings of the Robert Crown center ice rink. The first game is Friday evening.