The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

durhamregion.com 4 The Citizen December 17, 2015 Wyatt's Warriors heart defects charity 'kickstarted' following hiatus Founder Laura Celsie relaunches fundraising initiative after taking a break to deal with health issues Parvaneh Pessian ppessian@durhamregion.com BROOKLIN -- Like most people involved in charitable causes, Laura Celsie is used to looking after others' needs before her own. So three years ago when she was forced to put her non-profit organization on hold after she suffered a small stroke, it proved to be a challenging task for the Brooklin resident and founder of Wyatt's Warriors. "After the last walkathon we did, I got sick and I had to take time off to just get back to being healthy," says Ms. Celsie. She launched the charity in 2008 while her nephew, Wyatt, was receiving treatment for congenital heart defects at Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Wyatt, 2, died in 2009 but Ms. Celsie continued the charity in his memory and has since raised more than $250,000 for the hospital's cardiac care unit. Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect, affecting one in 100 babies in Canada each year. "I never really wanted it to stop," she says, of her decision in 2012 to temporarily discontinue Wyatt's Warriors fundraising events, including a walkathon, toy drive, and gala. "It was just a matter of getting myself back to where I could do it again." Now, with her health "a little more stable," Ms. Celsie says she's ready to kick things off again. She started with the Have A Heart Toy Drive, which wrapped up on Dec. 15 to deliver items to children staying at SickKids during the holidays. The next fundraising initiative is a curling tournament, scheduled for early next year. Ms. Celsie says she's looking forward to carrying on with her goal of not only raising funds but also awareness about congenital heart defects and reaching out to families in need of support. "Not doing it was driving me insane ... I felt like a part of me was missing," she says. "It was always my hobby and my favourite thing to do and I feel like it's the one thing that I can do for Wyatt. He's not here and we can't celebrate his birthdays with him, we can't have him around for Christmas. This is what we can do for him." For more information and drop-off locations for the toy drive, or to volunteer with Wyatt's Warriors, contact Ms. Celsie at 289-404-1021 or wyatts-warriors@hotmail. com or visit www.wyattswarriors.ca. Jason Liebregts / MetroLand BROOKLIN -- Laura Celsie, Brooklin resident and founder of Wyatt's Warriors charity, is once again collecting items for a local toy drive to support the Hospital for Sick Children. Her nephew, Wyatt, received treatment for congenital heart disease. He died in 2009 at age 2.