Laura Cotesta cancer drive celebrates 20 years

When Laura Cotesta was first diagnosed with a spinal cord tumour in 1987 there were no services in Sudbury to treat children with cancer.

When her cancer returned in 1995, she still had to travel to Toronto for all of her treatments.

Laura, a student at Lockerby Composite School by then, managed to raise $8,000 with her peers to help kick-rby-start a pediatric cancer centre in Sudbury.

Thanks to the Northeast Cancer Centre's pediatric oncology unit, children can now receive many of their treatments closer to home, without always needing to travel to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children or Ottawa's Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

Laura passed away from her cancer in 1997, but the movement she started at Lockerby Composite School celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2016.

Hundreds of students, who were not even born when Laura started her Kids Caring for Kids Cancer Drive, gathered at the Lockerby gym Thursday to launch this year's campaign.

“I'm proud of her and the legacy she left, and I'm proud of each and every one of these kids who come out and believe in the same cause,” said Laura's mother, Pina Cotesta, who has been at the centre of the Kids Caring for Kids Cancer Drive since the beginning.

“It's the most important thing at Lockerby Public School,” said Lockerby student Riley Roy, the campaign co-chair for 2016.

In 20 years the Kids Caring for Kids Cancer Drive has raised nearly $700,000 for the Northern Cancer Foundation.

Lockerby students will canvass their neighbourhoods for funds on Thursday, April 7.

Last year the campaign collected around $64,000.