Four-year-old Laurence Bourdon is happy and active today, but over the last two years though she struggled, really struggled, according to her parents.
“She’s been sick since June 2020,” explained her mother Véronique Payette outside their Kirkland home. “She has lymphoblastic leukemia.”
She said it has been difficult for the family and the child, especially since she was sick during the height of the pandemic.
It meant that her friends, 7-year-old Lea Salvatore and sister, Myla, 5, couldn’t get to see her. They’re happy now that she’s doing better and decided to put that energy into something positive.
“Because we wanted to help them raise money for the other people that are sick like Laurence,” said Lea.
The sisters told their parents they wanted to help Laurence’s family raise money for cancer research and support.
“They decided that they wanted to help out,” their mother Racha Mounla told Global News, “so they thought, ‘How about we save our money and buy the lemonade and we make a lemonade stand to raise money for the cause.'”
“Because I love her,” Lea pointed out.
Saturday the group set up their lemonade stand outside Payette’s home. All the money they raise will go to Leucan, an organization that supports clinical research and helps kids who are sick with cancer.
Payette says it’s their way to give back to the organization that was so helpful to them.
“We’re so happy,” said the mother of two. “People have been very generous.”
According to her, they raised just over $1,000 at the lemonade stand.
Coincidentally, fifteen minutes away in Vaudreuil the Jewish General Hospital Foundation had their own event to raising money for the Segal Cancer Centre.
It was their annual Weekend to Fight Cancer. They’re trying to raise $2 million during the two-day event and organizers point out that funds raised are critical for cancer care and research.
“What we like to say is, the government gives us enough money to be a good hospital and a good cancer centre, but to be an excellent cancer centre we really need the private support,” Brad Freedman, the hospital foundation CEO pointed out.
According to the Canadian Cancer Society it’s estimated that around 641 Canadians are diagnosed with cancer daily and just over 230 will die from the illness every day.
So advocates say every little bit of help counts, no matter how small.
Laurence, who was treated at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, benefited. Her treatments stop at the end of August.