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Students at Red Deer’s Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School are stepping up to help a classmate fighting cancer.
Grade 11 student Lachlan Ross was born with a genetic condition causing him to be him non-verbal and have complex medical needs. For the past three years, he has attended Notre Dame’s Foundations program, designed for students with complex needs to gain the skills needed to transition out of high school.
Despite being unable to communicate using his words, Lachlan has gained a reputation as someone with a bubbly personality who loves to laugh.
“He’s a party,” says Lachlan’s teacher, Alison Snow. “He loves to be with people and laugh; he has a great sense of humour. He just brings light.”
But this year, Lachlan hasn’t been at school much. After months of increased pain, difficulty walking and extensive testing at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, Lachlan was diagnosed with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. He’s facing six months of chemotherapy with a surgery in the middle.
“They will hopefully be able to salvage his limb,” explains his mother, Colette Ross. “If not, he will be getting an amputation, and we’re just hoping the chemotherapy can really get rid of the cancer.”
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It means even more visits to the hospital and time away from the classroom he loves so much.
“Watching him go through all these challenges is heartbreaking,” says Ross. “But seeing his smile, and that he’s so strong and brave through all of this makes it so much better.”
It’s his smile and bravery that inspired his classmates to help the Ross family through this latest obstacle.
Lachlan’s treatment is only offered at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, which means the family will be making regular trips south. Currently they have to take Lachlan out of his wheelchair and get him into the car for each drive, a process that is difficult and painful.
They’re hoping to buy a wheelchair-accessible van, but it’s a vehicle that comes with a price tag up to $100,000. They are looking for a used van but have had to launched a GoFundMe to help cover the cost.
That is when Notre Dame students sprang to action.
“We wanted to get the school involved,” says Addison Bradley, another Notre Dame Grade 11 student. “To show our support for Lachlan, to show that we love Lachlan and we want him to get better.”
With the help of Alison Snow, Bradley and a group of students launched “Loonies for Lachlan” during the final week of school before summer holidays. On June 9th, students could pay a loonie to wear a hat for the day, get hair tinsel, a face tattoo or buy bubble gum. A few days later, all proceeds from the student-led coffee cart were collected for the Ross family.
In total, $2,000 was raised to help get Lachlan a van.
“Students donated from a dollar up to $20,” says Bradley. “It’s great to see that they care so much for Lachlan.”
Snow says it’s been touching to watch students from outside the Foundations Program come to Lachlan’s aide.
“The community has really come together and shown faith in each other,” says Snow.
The Ross family is still searching for the perfect van they say will be life-changing. And as they focus on the road ahead, Lachlan’s community at Notre Dame is excited to welcome him back as soon as he is ready to return.
“It’s his Grade 12 year next year,” says Bradley. “It’s mine as well. I want to cross the graduation stage with him.”
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