MONTREAL -- COVID-19 has put more than a crimp in Christmas this year for many people.

Overshadowing the hardship for one Montreal family though is the joy that will come from seeing their almost three- year-old son walk for the first time.

One year before the pandemic hit, at the age of 13 months, Aiden Gagne was a happy and seemingly healthy boy ready to take his first steps.

“Suddenly, my wife came to me and said, don’t you think his legs are a little weak, are dragging,” said Aiden's father Sebastien Gagne.

Seeing that his condition had worsened overnight, Gagne and Aiden’s mother, Marilyne Beaudoin, got Aiden to Ste-Justine Hospital first thing in the morning.

They weren’t prepared for the shocking diagnosis.

Aiden had a tumour the size of a small finger nail “in the middle of his spine, crushing his spinal cord,” Gagne explained.

The only option was to operate the doctors told the parents, but the surgery itself was risky and could also cause paralysis.

It was a dark time. When the anesthesia wore off, the couple discovered Aiden couldn’t move his lower body. “We were devastated,” said Gagne.”

Three long days passed and finally the toddler “moved his right toe - we all cried, everyone cried, even the nurses,” Beaudoin recounted.

The relief was short-lived. Just two months after surgery in March, the tumour grew back and Aiden underwent another risky operation in July.

“It was awful, just awful. The first operation took 9 hours and the second one 10 hours...the waiting is the worst part,” Beaudoin said.

Treatment didn’t end there. Aiden received chemotherapy once a week for about four months, and then, of course, COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

The public health measures meant that Aiden’s mother could no longer have her father accompany them on endless hospital visits and had to go it alone, while Gagne worked.

“It was very difficult,” said Beaudoin who gave up her job as an educator to care for her son.

Progress was slow, but regular MRI scans showed the tumour had not returned and over many months and with hours of physiotherapy, Aiden grew stronger.

Gagne and Beaudoin transformed their basement into a playground palace so Aiden could be as active as possible and practice all his new motor skills.

And now for the first time, the toddler who turns three-years-old in January will be walking - likely running - around the Christmas tree for the very first time.

“With the confinement, it’s different than we expected, but it’s going to be just wonderful,” Gagne says.

Relatives can expect a video call or two, so they can all see Aiden’s new moves and celebrate what is a major victory, in COVID-19 times or not.