Young cancer survivors keep Stella Strong fundraiser pumping

Stella Strong fundraiser supports cancer patients The fundraiser to help families touched by cancer raises money for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. CTV London’s Celine Moreau has more.

Raising money to help the hundreds of families touched by London’s Children’s Hospital is the goal of a upcoming fundraiser in its third year called Stella Strong.

Stella Stenning was three years old when she as diagnosed with leukemia. She’s five now and cancer free.

“It was super stressful. It was like a whirlwind, everything was upheaved and your life absolutely changes 100 per cent,” says her father Dub Stenning.

During her cancer fight, Stella’s friends and family started a fundraiser called Stella Strong, to help give back to the community that rallied around them.

Scott Murray says it’s that same community that got him and his family through during a hard time.

His youngest son Joey was also diagnosed with leukemia at the age of four, “You just hear cancer and you expect this will go really bad, really quick."

Things did go bad, because a week after Joey’s diagnosis his mother suffered what’s called a stress seizure and died weeks later.

“Three days later he’s back in Children’s Hospital for a 12-hour day, so cancer didn’t stop just because my wife passed away.”

Murray says the family pushed forward through the grief to help Joey get better. He’s now nine and cancer free and will be alongside Stella this weekend to help raise money for the Stella Strong fundraiser.

“We get to give back to the [Children's Health] Foundation who did so much for us and to pay it forward because cancer is still a reality for a number of families and every day another family becomes a cancer family.”

The Stella Strong fundraiser is Saturday, May 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Forest City CrossFit on Dearness Drive.