A Red Deer family is honouring their late son with a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House, the organization that supported them during his cancer treatment.

In 2018, Nicolas Henkel was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at just 16 months old. He passed away at age four after his family — parents Jamelle and Chad, and siblings Jorie and Gavin — spent 518 nights at the Calgary Ronald McDonald House.

“My parents went there literally with the clothes on their back and my brother’s diaper bag; we had no idea we would be in the hospital for that long while he had cancer,” said Jorie Bloomer, Nicolas’s sister.

She recalls summer visits with her brother Gavin, field trips with other children, and holiday celebrations that brought families together.

“The most magical Christmases I think we h

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