TORONTO - Murray Henderson has created numerous paintings over the years that combined his passion for hockey and aiding charities, including the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer campaign.

But this time, it's highly personal. His 15-year-old stepdaughter, Courtney Morrison, was rushed to Toronto from Peterborough, Ont., by ambulance in February with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

She went through a gruelling time on the operating table with only a local anesthetic as tests were conducted. She couldn't have a general anesthetic because they'd found a mass in a tricky spot on the heart and above the breathing tube, Henderson said.

"What she's gone through is just absolute terror," he said, describing the procedures at the Hospital for Sick Children that included a lumbar puncture and removal of a lymph node.

"And all this in two hours at the same time in an operating room awake."

Now, the Grade 10 student is taking time off school as she undergoes chemotherapy