Maxwell John Robinson was a lively, intelligent and healthy 6 year old boy, born in August, 2008.
The first- born into his family, Max embodied love, hope and excitement for the future. He became a big brother in July, 2010 and fulfilled this role with great pride and responsibility. Max grew into a young boy filled with wonder and used his curiosity about the world to learn more than anyone figured possible. Max had close connections to his family and placed great importance on spending time together, enjoying gatherings and demonstrating his love outwardly and wholeheartedly. He loved camping, playing board games, completing tricky puzzles and reading books to his sister. Max was a whiz at math; his mind for numbers amazed those around him as he was easily able to compute difficult problems in his head. He flourished under a challenge and loved taking on connect-the-dots puzzles into the thousands, playing a good game of hangman, or devouring chapter books about the mysteries of Earth. Max embodied an excitement for learning and a great love for those around him.
In early June, 2015, Max became ill with flu-like symptoms and was diagnosed with a dangerous strain of E.Coli. He was admitted to The Alberta Children’s Hospital, where he fought some extremely difficult battles. True to his nature, he was gritty and worked so very hard to overcome these challenges. However, after battling against the mounting problems his little body was faced with, Max passed away one week later on June 13.
During and after this horrible ordeal, Max and his family were cared for by the compassionate, kind and loving staff at The Alberta Children’s Hospital. They provided unfaltering support and superb care, making a difficult time a little less isolating. The Robinson family wishes to use Max’s amazing spirit to help raise awareness around the need for community support of this amazing facility, and the Max Robinson Children’s Foundation was born out of this desire. Since June, 2015, over $250,000 has been raised for various programs in Max’s name. One of the foundation’s major goals was to purchase a $125,000 life saving machine called an ECLS for the Alberta Children’s Hospital, and we achieved that goal in 2019! With the help of our amazing community, we know we can go beyond this and help more families. The foundation continues to raise funds for the Alberta Children’s Hospital, partners with the Pregnancy, Infant & Child Loss Center on sibling support programs, and funds an Advanced Placement Scholarship at Edison School.
Max touched the lives of all those that were privileged to know him, as well as countless others who have been touched by his story since. Through fundraising efforts our hope is to continue to touch the lives of children and teens in our community through educational and health-related support.
