Jackson Did the Hard Part. Now Kingston Gets to Show Up.

Jackson Giddy is 12 years old. He is funny, he is determined, and if you tell him he can't do something, he will set out to prove you wrong. He is also a brain tumour survivor, and on Sunday, June 21, his city has a chance to cheer him on.

The day comes in two parts.

In the morning, the Kingston Brain Tumour Walk brings survivors, families, and supporters together at the Newlands Pavilion Gazebo by the water, to honour everyone whose life has been touched by a brain tumour.

In the afternoon, the Kingston Grenadiers take the field for their Dale Sands Memorial game, and Jackson, the team's honorary U18 captain and the kid they call their SuperKid, will run the opening play and score a touchdown in front of the home crowd.

That is the joyful part. The hard part came first.

Brain tumours are more common than people think with an estimated 27 diagnosed each day in Canada. Different ages, different outcomes, but the same blunt truth: a brain tumour can turn a life upside down overnight, and the needs that follow come fast and large, clear information, real support, and people who understand. No family should have to find those things alone. What carried each of these stories forward was a community, and the organizations at the heart of it.

When a brain tumour diagnosis lands, one of the first reliefs is learning you are not the first to face it, and that help already exists. In and around Kingston, several organizations make sure of exactly that.

At the national level is the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. For four decades it has stood behind anyone affected by a brain tumour, whether cancerous, benign, or metastatic, and it offers a deep bench of support: a toll-free support line, one-on-one peer support, caregiver resources, educational handbooks and webinars, and dedicated programs for children and families, including its BrainWAVE program. Alongside the support, it funds research toward better treatments, and it runs the Brain Tumour Walk, the largest volunteer-led brain tumour movement in the country.

That national reach is matched by efforts rooted right here in Kingston. One is the Kingston Brain Tumour Community, a local group that brings the bigger mission down to street level, keeping families connected to brain tumour news, resources, and one another, and rallying the city around moments like the walk and fundraisers such as this year's community silent auction. Much of that local energy runs through people like Catarina Macedo, who chairs the Kingston Brain Tumour Walk and, after losing her own mother to a brain tumour, turned her grief into a mission to help others.

The other is the Integrated Brain Tumour Program, led by neurosurgeon Dr. Teresa Purzner at Queen's University and Kingston Health Sciences Centre. The program is rethinking how brain tumour care is actually delivered, building what Dr. Purzner has described as a world-class pipeline for research and care. The approach has improved quality measures and brought more care closer to home for local patients, and it has drawn interest from hospitals well beyond Kingston.

Together, this is the net that catches people when the ground gives way. And once caught, many go on to do remarkable things, sometimes for the very community that held them up.

Jackson came through the surgery, and then he went to work. He had ataxia on his left side, nerve damage that affected his vision, and, hardest of all for a kid who loves to move, he had lost the ability to walk. Through a great deal of physical therapy and a refusal to accept the limits in front of him, he got his mobility back. He rebuilt his strength, including in his handwriting, and he keeps gaining ground today, corrective lenses and all. Tell him he can't, and he will show you otherwise. That is the kid the Grenadiers made their honorary U18 captain, the kid they call their SuperKid, and the kid who, on June 21, will run the opening play and score a touchdown of his own.

Dr. Kyla Tozer came through her surgery too, and what she built afterward is its own kind of recovery. Her experience pointed her toward helping others, and this year she is the Kingston Brain Tumour Walk's Community Champion. Her takeaway is the one this whole day is built on: a brain tumour can feel isolating, but no one has to face it alone.

As for Dale Sands, his legacy grew into something the whole community could gather around. After he died, the Grenadiers turned their grief into Grens Tackle Tumours, an annual day of football and fundraising in his name, anchored by the Dale Sands Memorial Game, with his son Ty now coaching on the same sidelines. It has become one of Kingston's most heartfelt sporting traditions, and every year the whole community is invited in. 

There is also a very public reason this cause cuts deep in Kingston. The Tragically Hip, the band that came up in this city, lost their frontman Gord Downie to glioblastoma in 2017, the same disease that took Dale Sands. The walk itself gathers beside the pier that now carries Downie's name. That thread runs into this year's fundraising too: one of the standout items in the community silent auction is a guitar signed by three members of the Hip, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair, and Paul Langlois. 

Kingston Brain Tumour Walk registration and start at Newlands Pavilion Gazebo

There is a photo from that June practice that captures it better than any words: Jackson in the middle of the whole team, helmet on, with arms and fists thrown up all around him and a coach's steadying hand at his back. A crowd of teammates, roaring for one kid. That is what a community looks like when it shows up.

Jackson did the hard part years ago, and he is still doing it, every day. Showing up for him, and for every Kingston family walking a road like his, is the easy part. On June 21, it is ours.

And the team that made him an honorary captain? There is more to the Kingston Grenadiers story, and we will be sharing it soon.