9-year-old patient raises almost $66K for Montreal Shriners hospital
Carter Brown has visited hospital 50 times for brittle bone disease treatments
Carter Brown is only nine years old, but he sure works a room like an old pro.
The Saskatchewan boy did just that Wednesday at an event to mark the end of the Exceptional Care for Exceptional Kids fundraising campaign at the Montreal Shriners Hospital for Children.
Carter raised almost $66,000 for the hospital, which he now visits three times a year for bone-building treatments.
"This hospital has really changed my life, and I love all of the people here so much," he told those gathered on Wednesday.
"This is visit Number 50 for me, and I hope I get to come 50 more times."
Born with brittle bone disease, Carter suffered a dozen fractures in the first month of his life.
"They told us that he would likely never walk, he wasn't going to sit up on his own, they just hadn't seen babies breaking from doing nothing," said his mother, Jennifer Brown.
Carter has since made huge strides to overcome the limitations of the disease, all with the help of doctors and staff at the Shriners.
Carter and Calvillo
Encouraging him along the way has been his good buddy, Anthony Calvillo of the Montreal Alouettes.
"All this positivity, this confidence, even though he's been going through this since he was born with the brittle bone disease, it didn't bug him," Calvillo said.
Carter met Calvillo at a golf fundraiser where the youngster was selling lemonade to raise money for the Exceptional Care for Exceptional Kids campaign.
"Even though I'm pretty sure that lemonade was supposed to be free, I charged everyone five bucks a glass," Carter said Wednesday.
"I cleaned up that day, but all for a great cause."