Canada's largest children's rehabilitation hospital launched the biggest fundraising campaign in its history on Wednesday to pay for a major expansion that will include Ontario's first fully accessible MRI machine.

Holland Bloorview hospital in Leaside hopes to raise some $25 million in an effort to further develop its research capabilities. Philanthropists Jason and Heather Smith have already pledged to match donations up to $4 million.

Some of the money will be used to purchase the specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. The device will be able to accommodate children of all abilities.

Jillian Peters with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital staff. (Ed Middleton/CBC)

Nine-year-old Jillian Peters, who has been an outpatient at Holland Bloorview since she was two, told CBC Toronto the announcement is "wonderful, really.

"You need that expansion to get more research so you can learn more about people like me, and people with disabilities, so you can help them to understand them better," she said.

Jillian, who has a form of cerebral palsy, had a four-month inpatient stay at the hospital from May to September of last year.

Expansion includes 'discovery hubs'

In a news release, the hospital says the machine will ensure that Holland-Bloorview becomes a "premier international centre for the study of child and youth brain function."

The expansion strategy also includes plans for "discovery hubs" in behavioural science, app development and music and the arts. Similarly, the hospital wants to establish an incubator of sorts to help bring research products to market.

It also hopes to recruit at least 10 new top minds in various fields to the research institute.

"This expansion of Holland Bloorview's research institute will generate new scientific and clinical knowledge to improve the lives of children and youth with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, concussion and acquired brain injury, cerebral palsy, mental illness, muscular dystrophy, amputation, epilepsy, and other developmental disabilities — in Canada and worldwide," the release said.

The hospital's research wing was initially established in 2004.