“She’s my everything. I love her so much.”

Tom Brady’s 2016 season is remembered for the 28-3 comeback in Super Bowl LI, but for the Brady family it was also a year defined by his mother Galynn’s fight against stage 2 breast cancer.

A diagnosis in the summer of 2016

Galynn’s cancer battle began in summer 2016. In an interview with NFL correspondent Andrea Kremer she recalled the moment she was told she had fast-growing, aggressive stage 2 breast cancer.

“I just remember sitting in the doctor’s office and them telling me ‘You have breast cancer. It’s only stage 2,’” Galynn recalled. “And so the journey began.”

The journey involved five months of chemotherapy followed by radiation and other treatment. The diagnosis changed the family routine because Galynn had traditionally been a regular presence at Tom’s games. In 2016 her health prevented travel to Patriots games, and the family watched from home.

“Everything centered around 10 o’clock Thursday morning” for her chemotherapy and then Sunday morning when the family would watch football, Tom Brady Sr. explained.

Adversity on both sides

Galynn’s illness coincided with Tom Brady’s four-game suspension amid the Deflategate fallout. Years later in Man in the Arena Brady said it was painful for his mother to see him “raked through the coals”.

“I think, personally, that was very difficult for her to see her son kind of raked through the coals like I was,” Brady said. He believed she was already carrying the stress of her own illness.

During his suspension Brady spent time with family at Pebble Beach, California, with Gisele Bündchen, daughter Vivian and nieces and nephews. “Being with my family at a very vulnerable time,” he said, gave him perspective.

Fighting to get to Houston

As the Patriots approached the Super Bowl, the family calculated that the end of Galynn’s five months of chemotherapy would fall about two weeks before the championship game. She completed her final round on January 12, 2017.

Recovery was not smooth. She developed pneumonia and shingles and her doctor did not clear her for travel until one day before departure.

“There’s a special bond between a mother and a son,” Galynn said. “I just wanted to be there for Tommy, and I wanted to be there with our family. Everybody was going to the Super Bowl and I didn’t want to miss that.”

Super Bowl LI becomes Galynn’s victory too

Galynn made it to Houston, but the game became another test. The Patriots fell behind the Atlanta Falcons 28-3.

“I said to Tom, ‘I just want to go home,’” she later recalled. “I was heartbroken for Tommy.”

New England erased the deficit and won 34-28 in overtime, giving Brady his fifth Super Bowl and the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.

“I’m so glad that I decided I would go and just put cancer aside for that weekend,” she later said.

A ring for the mother

Patriots owner Robert Kraft gave Galynn her own Super Bowl ring, recognizing her connection to the championship season. For Galynn the ring represented months of chemotherapy, health complications, uncertainty over travel and the decision to be there for her son.

Recovery and message

After the Super Bowl Galynn continued recovery. In June 2017 Tom Brady Sr. said she had finished treatment about two months earlier and was playing golf and tennis again. In August Brady said his mother was “on the road to recovery” after positive tests. By October reports said her latest screening came back clear, although recurrence risk remained high.

Galynn said she hoped others facing cancer would keep a positive attitude.

“I would hope that they would learn to keep a positive attitude, and not to give up hope,” she said. “Be thankful every day; think about the people that are caring about you.”

After the victory Brady said of his mother: “She’s my everything. I just love her so much.”