When Neave Badanai was two years old, she was diagnosed with liver cancer.
The surgery that saved her life was only available in Toronto, which meant her parents, Kelly and George, spent weeks away from home, comforting their daughter in an unfamiliar city thousands of miles from Thunder Bay.
Ten years later, the Badanai family is giving back, to the tune of up to $50,000, through their Memorial Avenue Chevrolet dealership. For the next year the family will donate $100 from every new car sold to Toronto’s newly constructed, $34.5-million Ronald McDonald House, a home away from home for parents and siblings of Ontario’s sickest children.
“I know from my experience that we didn’t get the chance to go to Ronald McDonald House,” Neave said Tuesday at the launch of the nine-month campaign.
“But I know how it makes people feel when they do get to go there. So for (my parents) to be able to donate that and help other kids get the chance to experience means a lot.”
Though only a toddler when she had her cancer scare, Neave said having her parents there meant the world to her at the time.
“When you’re in a new city you don’t know what’s going on and your family being always by your side means the world,” she said.”
George Badanai, the owner and president of Badanai Motors, said businesses in Thunder Bay are approached by dozens of organizations approach them for donations, but this request really hit home, despite being in Toronto.
Ronald McDonald House gets plenty of use by parents who call Thunder Bay and Northern Ontario home. Of the Ontario families who used Ronald McDonald House in 2011, 28 per cent hail from the northern part of the province.
“It’s hard for people to understand what goes on when you’ve got a child that’s sick that requires the type of care that’s provided for in Toronto, and the impact it has on the family. And financially it’s very difficult,” Badanai said.
McDonald’s spokeswoman Kathy Bukovy, called it a fantastic gesture, offering a huge hug and kiss to the Badanai family.
“No one in Thunder Bay has done this before in Thunder Bay. We’re so grateful for them and certainly put out the challenge there to people so say come on out and buy a car because it’s helping kids,” she said.
