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Proud to be an Independent CANADIAN Publication
Vol. 21, No. 14, Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Lamont county toddler spends Christmas at Stollery fighting cancer BY JANA SEMENIUK Lamont County resident Murray Laronde’s Christmas didn’t go the way he expected this year. Instead of Laronde and his wife Karen watching their two young grandsons open gifts on Christmas day, they were at the Stollery Hospital with their youngest grandson, 23-month-old Dallas, who endured his first round of chemotherapy. “We had Christmas early with the whole family (anticipating Dallas’ chemotherapy),” said Laronde. Dallas is smart and active, according to his grandfather, even while undergoing treatments to stave off the cancer invading his young body. “He’s a character,” said Laronde. “He analyzes everything and he’s thick and strong. There’s only five pounds difference between him and his older brother (who is five).” Laronde said the news of Dallas’ condition came when he developed a small lump on the side of his head last April that “wouldn’t go away”, prompting medical testing that led to the devastating diagnosis of stage four Neuroblastoma. “It’s a rapid growing cancer. He has a lump on his adrenal gland and lumps in his legs,” said Laronde. “Luckily
there’s nothing in any of his organs or his bone marrow.” Laronde said his son and grandsons live with him and Karen while his son works weeklong shifts. He said that although the family has received financial help from non-profits groups such as Kids with Cancer and Haying in the 30s, the day-to-day costs, including gas
for the two-hour trips from the family home near Andrew to Edmonton are taking a toll. “It’s about $50 a day on gas. We have to go to Edmonton two to three times a week to get (his) blood tested and keep an eye on his white counts and everything. The hospitals here in Redwater and Lamont are our main
go-to if he gets an infection (because) he won’t have long to get treatment,” said Laronde. Laronde said Dallas’ treatments will continue throughout 2026 and will include more rounds of chemotherapy, surgery, monitoring and trips to Calgary. “He has to go to Calgary to have stem cells removed from his bone marrow,” said Laronde. “This is roughly a year (process) depending on how (he is doing). He is a little trooper. He finished the fifth (day) of chemo and was running up and down the halls in the hospital.” While Dallas’ prognosis is uncertain, Laronde said he and his family are grateful for the care he is receiving. “The (care Dallas has) is amazing. (At the hospital) they come in the middle of the night and take his blood pressure, check everything and change his diaper and not even wake him up,” he said. “I hope they cure it. Every child in there has a team of seven doctors and they all come up with one plan working together. That’s pretty amazing.” According to reports, nearly 240 young people in Alberta are diagnosed with cancer every year.
23-month-old Dallas Laronde
Break and enter among charges for bashful hot tubber BY JANA SEMENIUK Fort Saskatchewan RCMP responded to a report of a fully clothed man sitting in the outdoor hot tub of a resident on a rural property northeast of Bruderheim during the early afternoon on Dec. 18. As police were on their way, the man smashed his way into the resi-
dents’ home through a glass door and was found hiding inside the residence when police arrived. The man, 45-year-old Fort Saskatchewan resident Steven Derijck, was arrested and taken into custody without incident according to a police press release. Additionally, police found a stolen Volkswagen parked
down the road which they linked to Derijck who was also linked to an incident in Fort Saskatchewan earlier that morning where he smashed the window of an occupied vehicle parked at a hotel on Town Crest Road. Derijck was charged with break and enter, failure to comply with a release order x2, possession of property
obtained by crime over $5,000, possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose x2, mischief under $5,000 and vehicle operation while prohibited. Derijck was brought before a Justice of the Peace and remanded into custody. His next court appearance is through the Alberta Court of Justice in Fort Saskatchewan on Jan. 8, 2026.