Having a sick child is the last thing any parent wants to think about. But it happened to us. And to our beautiful daughter Julia, barely three years old.

In 2005, Julia, our middle child, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma – a rare form of bone cancer. It's the same cancer Terry Fox had, and typically presents itself in children between the ages of 10 and 20 years. At the time, she was the youngest in Alberta to have this type of cancer. We brought her into the hospital because she was limping and within 24 hours she was diagnosed. From that point on, Julia wouldn't walk on her own again for the next 18 months.

Julia's treatment was incredibly intensive and took a physical and emotional toll on our entire family. She underwent 10 weeks of chemotherapy, followed by reconstructive surgery, then another 20 weeks of chemotherapy. The tumor was right on her femur near the top of the hip. They had to take out the part of the bone that had the tumor in it, and most of her femur. Her surgery, called Winkelmann's, essentially made her knee function as her hip and her ankle function as her knee, requiring her to wear prosthesis on her reconstructed leg.

In the year following treatment, Julia went through four new prosthetic legs and suffered four bone breaks.

Julia's pain levels were high, but she was just amazing. Little kids aren't like adults – they don't feel sorry for themselves. In the good moments, she was sweet and chipper. And in the hard moments, she was irritable or quiet but always endearing. What inspired us was seeing how this young person could face such an ordeal with courage and strength. She knew what she needed to get better, and she'd ask for it. Even on the worst days, when her mouth was sore from medication and she couldn't talk, she would find a smile for her baby sister.

As a family, we had to tap into our inner strength and turn to God to get through this. We were in the hospital two-thirds of the nine months, so we were apart a lot as a family. The separation was really hard on all of us.

Luckily, we had amazing friends and family to turn to. And we each had the ability to take time off work to focus on the recovery of our daughter, and the well-being of our family. Our oldest, Joshua, now seven, really stepped up to help take care of his baby sister Jael. It was hard on him – he had to be much more responsible that normal kids his age – but we've seen how compassionate he's become and that's a really positive thing.

We came into the Crowfoot YMCA in the fall of 2005. We knew of the YMCA, but certainly weren't familiar with the Strong Kids campaign. A wonderful woman and our new neighbor, Sharon Hill volunteered with the YMCA and encouraged us to become involved. She would take Josh there on the days she was volunteering.

Sharon raved about the benefits and encouraged us to meet with a YMCA staff member to discuss how our family could benefit from Strong Kids. As you can imagine, cancer takes an emotional and physical toll – but a big financial one as well. We had taken time off work to care for Julia, and just didn't have the financial resources to pay for a bunch of activities for our kids.

In late 2005, we met with Sue Morman, Crowfoot's general manager. It was very humbling to share our entire story and our finances with a complete stranger. But Sue was amazing – non-judgmental and very compassionate. We were honest about where we saw our finances for the next few years and Sue really seemed to get it. We had a membership for our family soon after.

Our involvement with the YMCA has done wonders for our kids and for us. It gives Josh an opportunity to be a kid again and have consistent activities that are just for him. Josh and Julia, only 15 months apart and the best of friends, were able to take part in science classes and cooking lessons together. Jael, now three, loves Gym & Swim, and we come to swim as a family on Saturdays.

The YMCA has become a community for us. Although it was hard at first to let go of the kids and let other people take care of them, we see how considerate and caring the YMCA staff and volunteers are, and how happy our kids are there.

The Strong Kids program alleviated a lot of financial pressure. It's been very rewarding for us as parents to be able to allow our kids to participate in a number of different activities and explore their own interests. The YMCA has really helped our children grow in spirit, mind and body and we are very grateful for that. It's a consistent, stable place that we all feel good at. Our kids call it "their Y."

It's been two years now, and Julia is doing really well. We can see the changes in her body, and her colour is coming back. She still goes to physiotherapy for her gait and is adjusting to the challenges of having a prosthetic leg, as well as recovering from the chemotherapy side effects. But her spirits are high, and our family is back on track, in large part due to the caring and helpful environment at the YMCA. We want to thank the YMCA for everything they've done for our family.