New children's hospice set for Dundas to fill gap for families across 20 Ontario municipalities

Camila Colin, 17, knows that one day, she will likely need hospice care. The Waterdown, Ont., resident lives with Friedreich's Ataxia, a degenerative disease affecting the nervous system that makes it hard to know how long she will live.

If her final days come before she becomes an adult, there is nowhere to go for children's hospice care in the Hamilton area. But a local hospice is finally coming. 

Colin attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Keaton's House: Paul Paletta Children's Hospice in Dundas, Ont., on Thursday. She said she was happy to know that kids facing death will be able to go somewhere more comfortable than a hospital.

"I'm very thankful [for] everybody that has come together to build this hospice and build something not for them, but for other people," said Colin, whose dream she said is for a society where people with disabilities are fully included in all facets of life. 

If her disease had progressed to the point of needing hospice care sooner, "I would have benefited from [the new hospice] and it probably would have made me feel less alone."

McMaster a rare children's hospital without hospice access

Keaton's House, an initiative of the Kemp Care Network with medical care provided in partnership with McMaster Children's Hospital, will have 10 beds, to be used for hospice or respite care for families from more than 20 municipalities in McMaster Children's Hospital's coverage area.

Those families currently do not have access to a pediatric hospice, says Jennifer Rowan, senior manager of strategic planning, communications and engagement with the Kemp Care Network, a palliative care organization formerly known as Dr. Bob Kemp Hospice.

"We will be the ninth children's hospice in Canada," she said, noting McMaster is one of the few children's hospitals that does not have the services of a children's hospice.

There are about 2.5 million children in the area covered by the McMaster hospital, said the hospital's president Bruce Squires, noting the new facility is expected to open in spring or summer of 2026.

Flamborough-Glanbrook member of provincial parliament Donna Skelly said at Thursday's event that the province will pay "up to" $2.5 million for its construction and up to $2.2 million per year in ongoing operational funds.

The provincial funding announcement follows years of fundraising from private donors, including property developer Paul Paletta. 

Keaton's House will be built on a piece of city-owned land behind Wentworth Lodge, now a grassy field bordered by trees, an apartment building and the Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail. 

Kemp board chair Dianne Murray said the facility will include suites that accommodate families, spaces for medical care and physiotherapy, play areas, and a classroom.

'There's not a day that goes by that we don't think of him'

Keaton, the facility's namesake, is the son of Kemp Care Network chief executive officer Danielle Zucchet.

Her Burlington family lost Keaton in 2010 at age seven. Without a hospice option the family was "forced to make the choice between home and hospital," and said goodbye to Keaton "amid the buzzing and whirring of an acute-care hospital," said his mom on Thursday.

Zucchet learned about children's hospices after Keaton's death and was moved to leave a corporate job to work for improved palliative care.

"Now that I am embedded in the palliative care world, I see… what we didn't have," she told CBC Hamilton.

"There's not a day that goes by that we don't think of him and don't miss him, but to know his memory is going to be helping another family is very meaningful."