by Nathan Farmer | Video by Jake Kirby

“You have cancer.” 

Three harrowing words no person ever wants to hear. For Utah Valley senior defender Toke Amtrup, the diagnosis came on the heels of a highly successful freshman season at Saint Mary’s in Moraga, California. 

In 2023, Amtrup was named to the WCC All-Freshman team and was the Gael’s Newcomer of the Year. Amtrup was chasing his soccer dream 5,000 miles away from his home in Denmark, but in a flash, everything on the pitch became unimportant. 

On Nov. 1, 2023, Amtrup received a long-awaited phone call. He had noticed a growth on a lymph node near his groin that doctors previously had been unable to identify. After a biopsy and further testing, it was eventually determined Amtrup had stage one Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“It had been a week, maybe a week and half since the biopsy. I was kind of expecting good news because it’d been a while, I felt like if it was urgent they would have called me early. The doctor told me I had a very high chance of having lymphoma. They did a CT scan to make sure, and it was.”

The phone call home to his mom wasn’t easy for Amtrup. 

“I had a really hard time just getting the words out. I knew how she would react. It was hard to tell her and then tell the rest of my family. They were obviously very, very sad, but then it was just kind of like, ‘how can we get through this together?’”

The support system around Amtrup was a massive help as he navigated the ensuing treatment. Amtrup’s teammates did everything they could to lift his spirits and take his mind off of his condition. Kolby Sessions — Amtrup’s best friend and teammate at Saint Mary’s — rallied the troops to send a well-wishes video as soon as he got back to Denmark. The team also wore gear with Amtrup’s initials for their final game of the season, an upset win at No. 25 Loyola Marymount.

“I’d only been with my team in California for three and a half months, but it was just like a family right away, like it’s been here at UVU. Back home, I have so many good friends, but it was weird coming back and for them to see me like that. I’ve got so many good friends around me, it just helped with all the good messages.”

The early diagnosis had a silver lining as the cancer hadn’t spread beyond the lymph node, but that didn’t make the ensuing treatment any easier. Amtrup had surgery to remove the cancerous lymph node before returning home for four rounds of chemotherapy and 15 rounds of radiation. He was finally cleared on June 3, 2024.

Amtrup returned back to the U.S. soon after, but another health scare delayed his recovery to the point where he had to be hospitalized for a few days. An infection had developed near the surgical area, and his insurance initially refused to cover the $80,000 in expenses for his hospital stay. The insurance company eventually cut the bill to $16,000, but it was still a heavy financial burden to bear.

Amtrup’s support system rallied around him once again, helping raise the $16,000 through a GoFundMe that allowed him to get back on the recovery trail ahead of his sophomore season at Saint Mary’s.

The recovery process wasn’t easy, but seeing the progress and fitness returning little by little gave Amtrup the extra bit of motivation to keep pushing forward.

“The hardest part of the whole experience was just seeing everything I’d worked for being taken away. I was in good shape, good physique, and then it just all disappeared. I looked in the mirror and I just saw such a vegetable, I didn’t feel like myself. But then, coming out on the other side, the best part almost was seeing how I was able to get rid of that so quickly, seeing the results.” 

Amtrup made his triumphant return to the pitch on Aug. 22, 2024, starting the Gaels’ season opener against Kansas City. Amtrup went on to appear in 12 games with six starts during his sophomore campaign, but never felt 100%. After the season, Amtrup decided to enter his name into the transfer portal, eventually landing at UVU alongside Sessions.

“Fish and I got the offer here as a package deal, and it was just like it was written in the stars. Talking with the coaching staff, they all seemed great and really took an interest in me. It’s been everything I wanted it to be.”

Sessions’ and Amtrup’s bond off the pitch has strengthened their play together on it. The duo fit in seamlessly in the Wolverine back line and helped contribute to an historic start to the 2025 season that saw a program and WAC-record six straight shutouts. That defensive success has carried over into this season, as the Wolverines rank in the top 25 nationally in team goals-against average.

“Toke makes my job easy every time we play,” said Sessions. “Goalkeeper and center back have one of the most important positional bonds on the field, so it makes it a hundred times easier that we know each other so well.”

As someone who’s been with him through nearly every step of the process, Sessions pointed to Amtrup’s positive mindset as something that stood out despite the circumstances.

“Getting diagnosed with cancer at 20 years old in the middle of your first semester in America is such a daunting thing, but he was positive throughout. I used to joke and call him my Danish ray of sunshine, and what I noticed when he came back from chemo and radiation is he was still that ray of sunshine. He didn’t let something that big dim his light. Most people would whine about their circumstances and how rough they had it, but Toke just cared about enjoying the game.”

Despite the coaching change in the offseason, Amtrup and many other key pieces stayed behind with new head coach Michael Chesler to help continue to build the team culture and identity that began to take shape during the 2025 season.

“It’s huge to have Ches here because he knows the program. We had a lot of trust in him being the head coach. We had player meetings [during the interview process] because we knew he needed our support in his pursuit of the job.

“It was nice to have the core group [of coaches staying on in Chesler’s staff], they’re not going to strip too much away from our identity, and with Ches being who he is, he’s just so engaged. He’s got this fire in him where we can tell that he really wants us to be successful.” 

Amtrup has been one of the key players behind Utah Valley’s success over the past two years. He was the only returner who started every game in 2025, and has played all but nine minutes this season.

Over Amtrup’s two seasons with the program, the Wolverine defense is allowing an average of a goal per game, the team’s best rate since the 2016 season when Utah Valley won its lone conference title to date. The Wolverines have also been ranked in the national polls for the first time since 2017.

As Amtrup reflects on his journey, he’s realized how it has helped him gain a new perspective on life.

“Having everything stripped away made me realize what I actually care about. I think my old self was so worried about what everyone thought. I’ve gotten better about not caring so much about the little things. I wouldn’t say I’m grateful for having cancer, but I would say I’m grateful for the things it’s taught me. In the hard moments, it’s something I can fall back on and know I’ve done something harder. I want people to look at my story and know that your circumstances don’t define you.”