By Joel Goldenberg

The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation held a ribbon cutting ceremony and highly emotional press conference recently to launch the Pavillion Kat Demes, where out-of-town parents will be able to stay free of charge while their critically ill or injured children are being treated at the MCH. The facility, located at Le Groupe Maurice’s the LIZ retirement home, at 5004 de Maisonneuve West, is a five-minute walk from the Children’s.

The “home away from home” is expected to open early this spring. The stays for parents of children up to the age of 18, can last anywhere from four nights to several months, and several hundred stays are anticipated.The pavillion is named after Catherine “Kat” Demes, who passed away at the age of five after a valiant battle with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, an inoperable form of brain cancer. Kat’s parents Peter Demes and Dina Bourdakos, and uncle Perry Giannias, who have fundraised for the MCH Foundation through the Expos Fest event founded by Giannias, were on hand. They have raised $1 million for brain cancer research and have vowed to raise $2 million more for the pavillion.

Giannias said the project is a “great way to help other families.”We often say our story doesn’t have to be everybody’s story. What happened to us as a family was tragic, but this is going to help other families. If you’re in a long-term stay at the Children’s, this way the children will be closer to the family. Everybody says the best medicine for a child to get better is for the family to be close. So we said yes right away. Having Kat’s name here is just the cherry on top. Her name will live on. When this happens to parents, you’re either going to go straight to the abyss or you’re going to rise to the occasion, and our family did that. We’re a Greek family, we cried a lot, swore a lot and we said ‘we’re going to make this happen.’ We’re super proud and excited.’”

Emotions reached their peak during the press conference when the family played a video of Dee Snider of Twisted Sister singing, with extra intensity, a special version of the anthem We’re Not Gonna Take It, featuring a woman having all her hair cut off and showing a picture of a child struck with cancer who was also without hair, interspersed with video of Kat. The MCH Foundation says the pavillion will provide parents with “all the comforts of home, including the warm welcome and support of compassionate employees, volunteers and other families.” The Foundation adds that the pavillion is “the only facility in Quebec to offer free, temporary accommodations to parents of sick children and teens,” and is part of the foundation’s Unexpected Ways To Heal campaign.

Also on hand were Foundation president Renée Vézina; Francis Gagnon, Chief of Real Estate Development and Investment Officer at Le Groupe Maurice, which donated $2.7 million; Johanne Héroux, senior director of corporate affairs and communications with Loblaw Companies Limited, which donated $2.5 million; McGill University Health Centre president and executive director Dr. Lucie Opatrny and Diana D’Addio, Professional Coordinator, Social Services at the MCH.

Also thanked at the ceremony were the Air Canada Foundation, Canada Cycles for Kids, the Just for Kids Foundation, Kids for Life Foundation, Kurling for Kids, METRO, Pedal for Kids, Sarah’s Fund for Cedars and many other donors. n