It was Family Day weekend in 2022 when Kristen and Tyson learned their six-year-old son, Coen, had cancer.

He had been waking up in the night complaining of pain in his legs that hurt to the touch. Caregivers in Okotoks took blood and discovered Coen had low hemoglobin and low platelets. They were told they needed to go to the Alberta Children’s Hospital right away.

At the hospital, specialists took more blood work and gave Coen medication to help with his pain while his parents anxiously awaited results. Soon Kristen, Tyson and Coen were meeting with their oncology team, Dr. Kyle and Dr. Mel, who through more tests, gave them the devastating news that Coen had B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).

While ALL is one of the more common types of cancer in children and more kids are surviving this disease, the treatment is harsh on little bodies. Coen would need to go through two years of treatment which included five phases of chemotherapy.

For that first month, he was pulled out of school and lived in hospital, undergoing his chemo. The first round of weekly treatments made him tired and sore and lose his hair, and ask the heart wrenching question to his parents, “why did this happen to me?”