The past year has proven to Jamy Gillan that nothing brings people together like golf.

In the past 12 months, golf has given Jamy and his wife Michelle a vast support system — and even a family — after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in January 2019.

Unfortunately, Jamy, 43, already knew what facing cancer entailed. He was first diagnosed with testicular cancer and beat it 24 years ago when he was 18. Knowing the difficulty of the battle before him, Jamy was determined to remain strong and defeat cancer for the second time.

What neither he nor Michelle expected as his battle waged on was how the Golfweek Amateur Tour would make Jamy’s battle its own.

Since 2011, Jamy and Michelle have worked as Michigan tour directors for the Golfweek Amateur Tour. Throughout the past year, fellow tour directors and those affiliated with the Golfweek Amateur Tour have reached out to the Gillans offering anything they can: their time, resources and prayers. One of the most memorable ways their tour family has shown solidarity with the Gillans is by creating plastic wristbands for friends across the country to wear in support of Jamy.

While neither Jamy nor Michelle could fully verbalize what the encouragement from their friends and colleagues means during this dark chapter, the constant inquiries provide comfort even when the road ahead is filled with uncertainty.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling, the support,” Michelle said. “You don’t know what type of support you have until you’re in that situation and even then you’re so surprised. You’re surprised, but you’re not. They are family … That encouragement definitely helps but I feel even now, I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s just amazing.”

For an organization spread throughout the country and comprised of thousands of people with different jobs and responsibilities, the Golfweek Amateur Tour proved to be miraculously close-knit when crisis struck.

One of those people supporting Jamy and Michelle from afar is Golfweek Amateur Tour founder Dennis McCormac, who wears one of Jamy’s support bracelets. When Jamy spoke with Golfweek in early December, he had undergone a stem cell procedure earlier that day. Before the procedure, Jamy said McCormac, who lives in South Carolina, texted and wished him luck.

“We see (McCormac) two to maybe three times a year, but the entire time we’re on the phone, we’re sending emails, we’re talking and it’s not just business, it’s personal. It’s a relationship. I know all about his life and he knows all about my life,” Jamy said.

Dedicated to life on tour

With approximately 5,000 people from players to administrative staff involved with the Golfweek Amateur Tour, Jamy and Michelle have spent the past eight years as tour directors communicating with and meeting countless people across the country as they work to make the tour better.

One of the most visible ways the Gillans have had an impact on the tour is by creating a live-scoring system. Jamy, who worked in IT for Gerber Life Insurance before joining the tour, developed a live scoring resource for the Michigan tour. But when other tour directors heard about it, they wanted to use it for their own events. The Golfweek Amateur scoring system is used nationally by tour directors across the county.

Dedication like this is what Jamy’s peers have seen over the past eight years with the tour. Even in the throes of cancer, it’s been unwavering.

After a diagnosis like Jamy’s and treatment, it wouldn’t be unexpected for his ability to work to take a hit. As a full-time tour director, Jamy is usually on the go. Michelle, who also works as a part-time physical therapist assistant, is on the road with him as part-time tour director nearly every weekend of the season, packing all Golfweek Amateur Tour events into Michigan’s few warm months. In the off-season, the responsibilities continue in creating the Michigan tour schedule and attending golf shows.

Throughout last season and especially now in the off-season, Michelle has become more hands-on with tour director duties as Jamy said he’s been suffering from occasional forgetfulness due to the chemotherapy. But that hasn’t kept Jamy from showing up.

Last season, tour player Jamie Kurth said Jamy would sometimes show up at events after having chemotherapy. Although he wore masks and was unable to shake players’ hands, he was locked in.

“Despite his health, he was still there and doing the announcements,” said  Kurth. “Leading us out there to be able to play golf and yet he couldn’t play.”

A perfect example of Jamy’s continued dedication occurred in September, when a 4.5-centimeter mass was detected on his brain. Surgery was scheduled immediately. One week after having brain surgery, Jamy showed up at the season finale at Lansing Country Club.

The challenge wouldn’t keep him from his family.

“It was my last opportunity to go see all of our players before the end of season. That’s part of it,” Jamy said. “At the end of the day, I just needed to see everybody for the last time before the end of the season and to let everybody know, ‘Hey, I’m here. I’m around and I’ll see you next year.’”

In October, Jamy attended the tour’s national championship in Hilton Head, South Carolina, when his doctor called reporting a CT scan that showed another mass impeding on the superior vena cava of his heart. Jamy was forced to leave after the tournament’s first day to begin bridge chemotherapy, a smaller dose of chemo, before he began the high dose stem cell transplant chemotherapy which he is currently undertaking at the University of Michigan Hospital.

An outpouring of support

As the Gillans turn the page on a difficult 2019, they’re not out of the woods just yet. Jamy is in the midst of a two-part high dose stem cell transplant chemotherapy. He began the first part Dec. 13 and expected to be discharged Jan. 3.

If he adequately recovers from the first session by mid-January, the second three-week cycle can begin next month. When Michelle emailed Golfweek on Dec. 29, she was optimistic the treatment would “hopefully, finally take care of this beast for good.”

While the Gillans will still battle cancer for some of 2020, their extensive tour family has never strayed from encouraging both to keep their strength.

“We have so much outpouring from the entire country and from people that don’t even know us that are sending emails and periodically trying to call and things of that nature,” Jamy said. “It’s just amazing what happened from being a local level and being a local challenge for myself and my wife and how it’s grown into potentially national support.”

The Gillans’ dedication, in season and out, has caught the eyes of not just colleagues across the country. Now, many want to return the kindness the Gillans have showed to them in ways the couple could have never imagined.

“Golf in general has such an ability to bring people together,” Jamy said. “I played baseball, I played football, I played all sorts of sports, I’ve done all sorts of things. I’ve never seen any sport or any activity during such a large group of people together at a very high-end level rally around each other.”

“For an individual sport, it’s almost still a team effort,” Michelle responded.

The Gillans are grateful for that team effort.