Habs Stanley Cup winner, superfan join forces to support Montreal kid with rare disease

A dad desperate to find a cure for his son’s rare mitochondrial disease got help from a former Montreal Canadiens player and a Habs superfan.

Kevin James Reason and family started the Liam Foundation in 2019 – a non-profit raising funds to research the debilitating POLG disease.

“Liam is my best friend. He’s my buddy,” Reason told CityNews. “He’s really my inspiration to do everything I’m doing.”

It all happened suddenly for Liam and his family.

“Liam is 10 years old. Back in May of 2019, he started having some jerky movements. We rushed him to the hospital. He was having seizures. He had seizures for about five weeks straight, 24 hours a day,” recounted Reason.

“Before all these seizures, he was able to walk. He was able to talk. But after five weeks of having these seizures, he lost the ability to do both. So maybe about two months later, we got the diagnosis of mitochondrial disease, more specifically, POLG.”

That led to the creation of the Liam Foundation, followed later by the involvement of former NHL player and Stanley Cup winner Chris Nilan and Sunil Peetush, the Canadiens superfan with the popular HabsCave basement.

“He was trying to raise all this money to help his son,” Nilan said. “I was like, how can I not help this guy? So I wanted to find a way I could help him and get involved with him. And I did.”

Peetush, from Saint-Lazare, became involved through Nilan, combining his love for the Habs with his desire to give back.

“A few years back, I met Chris Nilan at also a charity event,” Peetush said. “We connected through social media prior to meeting in person. I was lucky enough to have Chris in my life a little bit. Chris is very passionate about the Liam Foundation. It was hard not to get on board as well. I thought to myself, what do I have to offer? How can I help?

“It was just a spark that got ignited when I met Chris and saw how passionate he was about the Liam Foundation.”

Peetush came up with the idea of creating an event linked to his HabsCave.

“I thought to myself, I have guys come over all the time every weekend to watch games. How can we turn that into a charity event? It all started with that,” Peetush said.

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“The funds we’ve been able to raise and the children we’ve been able to help has been absolutely amazing,” added Reason. “Sunil’s been fantastic.”

Together, they recently raised $11,000 for the Liam Foundation.

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Helping children everywhere

What truly inspired Nilan about the Liam Foundation was the organization’s dedication to help children all around the world.

“These kids that have no hope, these families that have no hope, they’re not aware that there is a medication out there,” Nilan said. “They’re doing the trial at the Children’s Hospital here in Montreal. And to bring people in… he brought people in from India, China, the States, Brazil, everywhere.

“I’d be worried about my own kid. But Kevin’s trying to find a cure not only for Liam, but for all these other kids.”

More information on the Liam Foundation can be found on Nilan’s personal website.

“He has the whole story of Liam,” said Reason. “And he has a little… you know, where you can donate and learn about myocardial disease.”