A young Parksville boy who recently got to spend a day as Victoria's top cop has died after putting up a brave fight against cancer.

CTV News first met Kaiden Finley, 11, last fall when the Tour De Rock team stopped in Parksville to give him an impromptu hug.

The inspiring youngster had beat brain cancer once before, but lost his latest battle after he relapsed.

In January, things had not improved, so the Victoria Police Department helped make him police chief for a day.

His smile lit up the entire department as he kicked back in chief Del Manak's office chair, feet up on the desk.

"What was kind of shocking is that Chief Finley actually got a louder round of applause than I did when I was sworn in, so that's kind of nerve-racking," Manak joked at the time.

Kaiden died last Thursday after tumours reappeared on his brain stem and spinal column in September.

"Two weeks later they were in palliative care as they were told that there were no more treatment options, due to the high levels of radiation that Kaiden had already received and the placement of the new tumours," a profile on Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada's website said.

His family said that as they strived to create memories with the youngster, hurtful comments were still directed toward them because of Kaiden's perceived weight gain, not realizing it was due to medication he was taking.

Prior to his death, his mother said she was determined to raise awareness about the disease.

"You don't realize until it affects you," she told the foundation. "It's not just the patient that's affected, it's everyone: parents, siblings, family, friends. We need to raise awareness so that no one else has to go through this."

Family has previously asked anyone touched by the young boy's story to consider participating in the Victoria Brain Tumour Walk Sun., May 26, at the University of Victoria.