A Fort McMurray firefighter who inspired many Albertans in the past few years has lost his battle with cancer.

Bo Cooper was 20 when he was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The treatment that Cooper needed could not be done in Alberta, but the province rallied behind him and his family to raise the money needed for Cooper to receive treatment in the United States.

“You saw not only from Fort McMurray, but people pouring in donations from across Alberta and across Canada and the world just really touched by the story of how he was fighting,” Tyran Ault, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Councillor, said.

There was hope in April, when Cooper’s family posted on a Facebook page that nearly 7,000 people follow that his cancer was in remission following that treatment. But late in the summer, Cooper was no longer in remission, and four weeks ago, he began to battle an infection.

“If there’s one way to look at it, it is that it opened a lot of eyes in terms of leukemia and the battle that these individuals have to go through in fighting this awful disease,” Ault said. “If it’s raised a little bit of awareness, I think that’s part of what the Cooper family and the Fort McMurray Fire Department and their friends really wanted to do.”

Cooper is gone now, but after fighting leukemia three times, Albertans will always remember his legacy -- and a tribute could be on the way.

"We have a great community identification committee through the municipality, and I’m sure a recommendation will be coming forward from them for some kind of naming the way that Bo touched the entire community, you need to have some kind of lasting legacy,” Ault said.

With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith