In the past 20 years Lockerby Composite School's Kids Caring for Kids Cancer Drive has raised more than $800,000 for pediatric cancer care in the region.
Grade 11 student Mia Jensen says she is excited for the 21st campaign to get underway in October.
“It's not just an exciting event for our school,” she said. “It really resonates with the community.”
Mia is one of 14 students at the school that sits on the Kids Caring for Kids Cancer Drive committee, and said she was inspired by former student Laura Cotesta to participate.
“She was a student like the rest of us. She was going through something and decided, 'I don't want to sit around and do nothing,'” Mia said. “She decided to take matters into her own hands.”
Laura was first diagnosed with a spinal cord tumour in 1987.
At that time 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 was a student at Lockerby Composite School at that time and managed to raise $8,000 with her friends to help kick-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 has continued to grow since then.
Last school year students at the school, who were not even born when Laura passed away, raised $64,000 for for the Northeast Cancer Centre’s pediatric facility.
This year's cancer drive will kick off with a motivational assembly at the school on Thursday, Oct. 13.
On Wednesday, Oct. 26, students will canvass throughout the community to raise funds for the cause.
