Brody Babin was taken to the North Bay Regional Health Centre with stomach pain in February of 2025. After spending a night at the hospital in North Bay, Brody was flown to CHEO (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario) in Ottawa. That trip led to a more than seven-month ordeal as the family first spent time in an Ottawa hotel while Brody was diagnosed, and then treatment began.
Brody’s father, BJ, said living that way would break the family financially.
“The hotel would give us the ‘compassionate rate’ but that was only for two days. We were trying to run a business (a forklift company) from the hospital,” says BJ. The hotel stay lasted about two-and-half-weeks, and they gave up working to stay with their son.
“We couldn’t even get (employment) insurance. It was terrible,” says BJ.
Things got a little better, though, after a phone call and a brief wait.
“My wife made a call to Ronald McDonald House. They had no openings but said they would put us on a list. Within four days they called back saying they had a room for us.”
The Babin’s spent 160 nights at Ronald McDonald House Ottawa while Brody was being treated for Burkitt’s Lymphoma Leukemia (stage four), an aggressive lymphoma that can affect a patient’s organs. Without Ronald McDonald House, they would’ve needed to stay at a hotel while Brody was being treated, missing work and being hours away from their daughter, Taya.
“Ronald McDonald House provided our family a safe space to heal and recover while being only steps away from the hospital where our son was receiving medical treatments,” says BJ. “When our son was very sick and required immediate care in the middle of the night, we were able to be at the hospital in minutes. We are eternally grateful to Ronald McDonald House,” says BJ.
Brody’s case was extreme, and from his arrival in Ottawa things turned from very bad to worse once treatment began.
“They (doctors) went in for a laparoscopy to do a biopsy. They found the tumours, and once they touched them, the tumours ruptured,” says BJ.
That filled the 10-year-old’s body with tumour lysis. BJ described this as the waste material inside a tumour.
“Brody started to shut down, and what should have been a thirty-minute procedure, ended up with him in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) on a ventilator. He was intubated (a tube is inserted through the mouth or nose into the trachea to maintain an open airway and deliver oxygen) for about a week-and-a-half,” says BJ, choking back tears.
But help was on its way to Brody from nearby (Ottawa) and from afar (North Bay).
Marc Mathon has run various North Bay Bulldogs football programs for almost 30 years. Brody Babin was a player Mathon grew to know well. Brody Babin played for Mathon in the fall Bulldogs Youth Tackle Football League. Brody Babin was urged by Mathon to play in the summer league.
Mathon says he and Brody’s teammates were shaken up when they learned of his leukemia.
Although Brody Babin couldn’t play football, his North Bay Bulldogs teammates made him feel a part of the football family.
“In the spring of last year (2025), Brody was just not feeling too good, but still very much looking forward to summer football. Then we got the news of his leukemia,” says Mathon, who thought if anyone would beat cancer, it was Brody Babin.
“This is about Brody and the test put before him — it was either going to kill him or drive him to be the bravest and most powerful boy he would never have dreamed of becoming,” says Mathon.
The Bulldogs then mobilized to help the Babin family.
“We organized a football pro-style combine at the Canadore Panthers Dome; it was a huge success. We raised over $7,000 for the Babin family to help. Our hope was that the message going back to Brody was that he had over a hundred other brothers and sisters out there in the Bulldogs (family) who have his back,” says Mathon.
Despite his illness, Brody was able to go to Omischl Field in the summer of 2025 to see his team play. He did.
“He wanted to go on the field, and he did for an hour, but (they had to leave) because Brody was so sick,” says BJ.
The Bulldogs went above and beyond the cause to help..
“The team came to our house; they put him in a jersey; they photoshopped out his PICC line (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter), put a hat on him so you couldn’t see he was bald. The Bulldogs put out a team poster, and his position was ‘warrior,’ and that is pretty cool,” says BJ.
Brody Babin’s football poster taken curing his cancer battle. Photo by SUPPLIED
Brody is back home and is looking forward to the summer and returning to the football field. The Babins now run their own forklift repair business.
His family knows that being able to stay in Ottawa during Brody’s treatment was crucial to a good outcome.
Brody Babin enjoying — what else? — some McDonalds at Ronald McDonald House in Ottawa when the family visited a few months ago to see staff. Photo by SUPPLIED
“The Ronald McDonald House will forever be a part of our lives. I cannot begin to describe to you the level of comfort that house and the staff provided. You can walk into that place with nothing and they will make sure you are okay,” says BJ.
BJ sums it all up by saying,” The Ronald McDonald House is the best place you never want to be.”
Story courtesy of the North Bay Nugget, reporter Greg Estabrooks.