On Saturday afternoon people of all ages gathered at the Hope For HopeSpring Fundraiser.

Cancer patients and their children who attend therapy programs at the centre, came together to raise money.

“If it wasn’t for this place I don’t know where people would go,” said Line Law, who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer a year ago.

With two days left, the group managed to raise a little over half of their $400,000 goal.

The Puddle Jumpers program at HopeSpring is for kids dealing with cancer, whether they themselves are cancer patients or if their family members have cancer, HopeSpring offered them therapy.

HopeSpring

Kids have the chance to talk about their feelings with child life specialists and be among other kids going through the same thing.

“It’s more comfortable than saying it to people that absolutely have no idea what it’s like and it makes you more comfortable, it really does,” said 11-year-old Frederick Law, who has been attending the centre for about a year since his mother had cancer.

The kids are encouraged to be themselves and the volunteers and specialists use informative games to teach them things about cancer that they may not understand.

“We forget that they are the ones suffering the most. They're the ones more confused than anybody else. They're the ones who are in the dark about all this. We're the ones dealing with doctors and dealing with medical terminology and stuff like that, while the kids are like ‘I don’t understand any of this. What’s going on with daddy’,” said Scott Hulme, who was diagnosed with oral cancer two years ago. Both he and his children use the services provided by HopeSpring.

The centre also offers the parents or patients help by providing wigs and holistic treatments, like massage and reiki.

“I just don’t know what the community would do without it. I don’t know what I would do without it,” said Faith Walker, a mother of three. “If everybody gives just a little bit then we just might get there and that's what I’m hoping for.”

With reporting from CTV Kitchener’s Carina Sledz