His whole life, he dreamt of playing soccer professionally, and it was trending that way for East Gwillimbury’s Tymaz Bagbani, 22, when everything began to change.
From the age of five, he had played the sport he loved at the highest levels in Canada. Then, when he was 11, his mother noticed at one of his training sessions he was falling behind physically.
After visiting a doctor and having a blood test done, Bagbani was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. After beating it, two-and-a-half years into remission, it returned, and he needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.
Ten months after his first bone marrow transplant, Bagbani moved to Málaga, Spain, alone at the age of 15 to go on trials with professional soccer clubs.
“Only a month-and-a-half into that, I started noticing bruises on my body and took a blood test to find out the cancer had come back,” he says.
Once he returned home, he was admitted to SickKids in Toronto, where he was given six months to live and was advised against treatment because it would do more harm than good.
“I refused to accept it,” he says. “We fought with the board, and I got my treatment. I did another full six or seven rounds of chemotherapy, had my second bone marrow transplant, and total-body radiation at 16.”
Although he needed the transplant, he was diagnosed with graft-versus-host disease, a condition that occurs when donated bone marrow treats the recipient’s body as foreign, and the donated bone marrow attacks the body.
“Everything got affected,” he says. “I got scleroderma — all my joints were stuck in 90 degrees, and I couldn’t straighten my arms or legs.”
As a result of the scleroderma, Bagbani was told he would never walk again, and he spent the next four years in a wheelchair.
“Again, I refused to accept it,” he says. “I found a surgery in Russia, went to Iran to meet the doctor, and had it performed in Montreal. It took about a year on each leg. To try and envision it, it kind of looked like Forrest Gump with the metal things on his legs. I had eight-inch screws straight into the bone, and every day with a wrench, I would turn it to gain a millimetre at a time to get my legs straight again. After that, I had to do a few years of extreme physiotherapy.”
Despite the continued trials and tribulations testing Bagbani’s will, the situation led him down a new path toward music and a new dream of being a rap/hip-hop artist.
“Being a professional soccer player is all I ever wanted to do, all I ever dreamt of, and all I ever worked for,” he says. “When I was in the hospital, I found a new passion with music.”
The journey from up-and-coming soccer player to having the sport taken away would deter many, but Bagbani has used it as motivation and has poured his dedication into his new love.
“I’m the type of person who, if I want to do something, then I’ve got to do it because I believe in myself,” he says. “When I jump into something, I want to be the best in the world at it. If you don’t believe in yourself, then how can you expect anybody else to?”
On Nov. 28, he released his debut album, Heavenly, under the moniker Tymaz.
“Before making music, I was a battle rapper. Lyrics are the most important thing to me, and battle rap is all lyrics with no beat,” he says. “I want to make music that reaches people, and I made music that, no matter what age, race or gender, everybody can enjoy it. I have big goals. I want the respect of being one of the best lyricists to ever do this.”
When writing music, Bagbani leans on his life experiences because there’s nothing more important to him than being real.
“I want people around the world to hear me because my brand is overcoming struggles,” he says. “I never let my life get taken away from me because I feel like I’m destined for greatness.”
Tymaz’s music video for his single, Deep Dive, can be found here, and his new album is on Spotify here.
