Children at an Ontario cancer hospital got to watch an astronaut wearing a spacesuit emblazoned with their artwork aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday.

The kids at the Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ont., are the latest participants in the Space Suit Project, an international initiative that aims to raise awareness about the power of arts in healing and the possibilities of scientific collaboration.

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer called the colourful patchwork suit “the coolest thing I’ve seen in space, period.”

U.S. astronaut Randy Bresnick said the kids who painted it are “real heroes.”

Dr. Dave Williams, a former astronaut and medical doctor who is now CEO of the hospital, said the Space Suit Project is showing children that collaboration can lead to everything from medical cures to space exploration.

Williams explained that the children coloured triangles just like the ones that made up the suit that he used on his spacewalk. The coloured patches were sewn together and the design was reproduced and flown to the ISS, 400 kilometres above Earth, in July.

The children in Newmarket, and at other participating locations around the world, spoke to the astronauts by video link.

Eight-year-old Logan Deplancke, who just finished treatment for leukemia at Southlake, said he enjoyed the project.

“It was just really fun because I just used my favourite colours,” he said.

Logan’s mother, Tanya Deplancke, said that the kids “so often come to the hospital so often for negative things -- or things they see as negative or traumatic --- so for us to come for such a positive thing, it’s just so amazing.”

The Canadian Space Agency says astronauts on the ISS are involved in research that could lead to cures for diseases.

The suit that the children worked on was called “Unity.” Patients from Montreal Children’s Hospital also participated.