Lachlan Ross, a Grade 11 student at Red Deer’s Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School, is known for his bubbly personality and love of laughter despite being non-verbal and having complex medical needs.
After months of pain, he was diagnosed with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, requiring chemotherapy and surgery. The family needs a wheelchair-accessible van, costing up to $100,000, to ease trips to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.
In response, students launched “Loonies for Lachlan” during the final week of school, raising $2,000 through hat days, hair tinsel, and a student-run coffee cart. Teacher Alison Snow praised the community’s faith, while classmate Addison Bradley aims to cross the graduation stage with Lachlan next year.