Lexi Hext’s mom, Tracy, was always her biggest skating fan.

So the Petrolia teen is getting ready to honour her mother and raise some money for St. Joseph’s Hospice using her talents on ice.

Hext is planning a figure skating showcase called “I Skate for Mom” at the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre Nov. 15 to raise money for St. Joseph’s Hospice.

The name is apt, since Tracy – who died of cancer this year – loved to watch her skate.

“I’ve skated since I was three,” Hext tells The Independent. “And my mom has always been there; she never missed a carnival or any ice show.

“When I wanted to quit she told me to keep going because I was a beautiful skater, even though I wasn’t going anywhere.”

Hext says her mom had skated when she was young so it was “something really close to my mom, so she liked that I could do it.”

Tracy had suffered from melanoma for some time, but one day in March, ironically while Hext was at a skating competition, she became so ill she had to be hospitalized.

The teen rushed to her bedside to tell her she’d won silver only to find she was so ill, she could not understand what had happened. It took some time, but her mom rallied. “I figured it was just because of me and my skating,” she jokes.

Hext mom was referred to St. Joseph’s Hospice. She was there for three months.

Hext says she couldn’t have asked for better care for her mom with the staff meeting her medical needs and just being there to talk “to make sure she was not so lonely” when she woke in the night.

After Tracy died, Hext went to counseling at the hospice to help deal with the pain of losing her mom.

“My friends…I have a few that went through something similar …but nobody really understood…they didn’t know what to say, but at the hospice, they knew exactly what to say.”

Even before her mother died, Hext had dreamed up the idea for the skating fundraiser. Her dad urged her on and the teen has already raised $1,600 through sponsorships. She’s hoping to raise a lot more through donations at the door on Nov. 15 starting at 3pm.

And she’s been getting a lot of support from skaters – 20 have already signed on for the showcase and more have asked to join.

And while she’s planning the event, Hext is also practicing her skate, a ballet set to Swan Lake. She’s preparing for the event like any other skating show, practicing twice a week with her coaches. And she’s trying to look at the I Skate for Mom showcase – the first show she will do since her mom’s death – the same way. “Before I go on, I’ll think, it is just like any other skating show; but it will be hard,” she says.

And Hext says it will be good to skate for her mom again. “She was always so encouraging and I want to do something she loved.”

IF YOU GO

I Skate For Mom

Sunday Nov. 15

3 pm to 6:30 pm

Sarnia Ports and Entertainment Centre

Admission is a donation to St. Joseph’s Hospice’s Caring Heart’s Children’s Program.