Last year, Baxter's mother, Koreen Huard, started Brenna's Walk for Pediatrics to honour her memory.
“Breanna was a happy, bubbly, caring kind of kid. Always willing to put others before herself,” Huard said. “Throughout her illness she was very strong and very accepting of everything she went through. She gave me a lot of strength and inspired me to help other people, especially children, through their journeys with cancer.”
Last year the walk raised $8,000 for the Breanna Baxter Fund and a book fair at Churchill school – where Baxter was about to start Grade 4 at the time of her diagnosis – brought in another $1,000.
Huard said her goal was to raise $10,000 for 2014.
Vicky Wilton, an inter-links nurse with the Northeast Cancer Centre, said the walk is important to raise awareness about the children in the community with cancer, and to help their families support them.
“Families do need money,” she said. “Families are really stressed financially when they have a child that has cancer.”
About 80 per cent of children with cancer at Health Sciences North survive and go on to be healthy adults, Wilton said. But 20 per cent don't make it because the cancer has reached vital organs and cannot be treated.
Wilton treated Baxter when she was at the Northeast Cancer Centre.
“She was a real feisty little girl,” she said. “For the family (the walk) means a lot. It means there's a legacy in her honour.”
For more information about Breanna Baxter Fund visit www.ncrfsudbury.com or phone 705-523-HOPE (4673).