Conquer the Crater 2025

Our Story

The MAC Fund is honoured to help support over 30 Northern families through their challenging times.

On March 21, 2016, our then two-year old son Malcolm, affectionately known as Mac, was diagnosed with a Rhabdomyosarcoma tumor in his inner ear.  It was an aggressive tumor, growing visibly outward from his right ear, while also growing through his skull and wrapping itself around his Carotid Artery.  At the time of diagnosis, Mac was a stage two and immediately began a 42-week chemotherapy protocol with a concurrent 6-week radiation therapy protocol.

8 IV starts, 4 biopsies, port insertion, 4 life-threatening febrile neutropenia infections, a two-month relocation to Toronto with 30 sedations to administer radiation, along with countless other pediatric cancer journey mishaps, Mac is through to the other end.  He is now four-years post treatment, and remains cancer free. We are now onto the next phase of the journey – the latent affects caused by treatment.

We know that even when the acute treatment ends, the journey is far from over for the children and their families.  Ongoing complications, constant worry, follow-up visits to Sick Kids and CHEO can all place significant burdens on those impacted by childhood cancers.  We hope to raise awareness of the prevalence of paediatric cancers in Northeastern Ontario and support the children and families impacted by them through local research and patient care programs.