New Jersey Childhood Cancer Hero Determined To Host Alex's Lemonade Stand Across United States
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – After beating childhood cancer as an infant, a New Jersey girl is determined to host an Alex's Lemonade Stand in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Lily Adkins was diagnosed with a regular ependymoma brain tumor at 14 months old.
"We thought it was a normal childhood sickness, but it wouldn't go away. Finally we ended up at [Children's Hospital of Philadelphia] in the ER and she had a CT scan that found the mass on her brain," Lily's mother, Trish Adkins, explained.
Lily had emergency surgery the next day and then began her recovery process. She was sent to MD Anderson in Houston, Texas for six weeks of proton radiation therapy because of her tumor type and other factors.
The brain tumor left Lily unable to walk, but now the 13-year-old does much more than walk. She enjoys running and dances all the time.
"She's amazing," Adkins said.
Lily and her father, Mike Adkins, created the world's largest cup of lemonade to make their lemonade stand even bigger.
"Me and my dad wanted to make something bigger than just a regular lemonade stand so more people would help out, so my dad said, 'What about something bigger than it would normally be?'" Lily said.
The family's latest plan is to host a lemonade stand in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
"We are also always asking our friends and family who live far away to host stands for ALSF," Trish said.
Lily wants to complete this by the time she turns 16, marking 15 years cancer-free.
She kicked off the first lemonade stand of her road trip in her hometown of Haddon Township, New Jersey.
They plan to start covering the East Coast this summer, traveling next to Ohio because they have family there.
With one down, the Adkins family has 51 more stops -- stay tuned to find out when they are coming to your state.
