It was supposed to be a nice weekend outing – a bit of weekend fun in the great outdoors.

Earlier this month, Mike Beaumont took his seven-year-old daughter to Waterloo to play.

While on a trail near Hillside Park, he heard his daughter scream.

“I looked back, and she had a syringe jabbed into her leg from when she fell,” he says.

Beaumont says he grabbed the hypodermic needle, pulled it out of his daughter’s leg, and immediately drove her to the hospital.

Since that day, his daughter has been taking medication on a daily basis to prevent hepatitis B and HIV. She’s also undergoing blood tests every two weeks, to determine whether she was infected.

Beaumont says he’s concerned about finding the needle on the trail, and others near his home in Cambridge.

He says there should be more done to ensure syringes are properly dispose of after they are used.

“This needs to stop,” he says.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about this – if your kid goes outside, if they’re going to get infected or they’re going to die.”

Officials with Region of Waterloo Public Health say people who use needles through their program should return them after use, and anyone who finds a needle on public property should contact bylaw officers.

With reporting by Tyler Calver