Paige Moench was only 22 months old when she died from a rare and aggressive form of leukemia in August, 2013.
“There isn’t a day that goes by or a few hours that go by that I don’t think about Paige,” Paige’s mom, Natelle Moench, said.
To honour their daughter’s memory and help raise awareness and money for childhood cancer research, Paige’s parents started an annual “Family Day Skate” with the first one taking place just six months following their daughter’s death.
“It’s definitely hard,” Moench said. “It’s something just to make it through every day, I try and keep positive memories and I think I have reframed it for myself to focus on each event and the excitement around each event.”
The 5th annual skate took place Monday at Royal LePage Place in West Kelowna bringing out hundreds of people to help support the cause.
The annual event, along with a number of bottle drives and a golf fundraiser, has helped raise more than $50,000.
The money goes towards the B.C. Children’s Hospital and childhood cancer research, an area Moench said is severely under-funded.
“Less than four per cent of overall funding dollars goes towards pediatric cancer research,” she said. “I think incredible research has been done with many other cancers, adult cancers and I think that pediatric cancer can have that same success and time if people continue to support it.”
For more information or if you would like to donate, check out thepaigefoundation.org.