It took seven years, two major surgeries, many courses of chemotherapy and radiation treatments but Paddon is cancer free today. He is now studying engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

“My son is a miracle child,” says Joni Hughes, a Calgary lawyer and KCCFA board member. “Twenty-five years ago the tumour at the centre of his brain would have been inoperable but because of advances in medical research, Paddon is now cancer-free.”

Paddon’s grandparents, William and Jean Hughes, want to ensure other families will not have to experience what theirs did, so they gave $750,000 to KCCFA’s We Believe campaign to help build the new Hughes Children’s Cancer Research Centre (HCCRC) at the University of Calgary. With the help of the Hughes family and other generous Calgarians, KCCFA contributed $1.5 million toward the new centre, currently under construction.

Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the HCCRC will house cancer researchers and doctors who will work collaboratively to investigate the molecular makeup of cancers with low survival rates. The hope is that one day their research will lead to more targeted, less invasive treatments that will minimize the short- and long-term side effects of cancer treatments and save children’s lives.