A 7-year-old girl sells lemonade to raise money for her life-saving brain surgery.
Liza Scott, an adorable 7-year-old girl, set up a lemonade stand to help her parents raise money for her brain surgery, Newsner reports. The brave little girl knew her life-saving operation would cost a fortune, so she decided to help her mom and dad in such difficult times.
Liza’s mom Elizabeth Scott, 41, from Alabama, told Today:
“She just said she wanted to go to the bakery and start selling lemonade to help her get her surgeries. I just said, ‘Well that’s fine. You can go set up your lemonade stand,’ not really thinking it would amount to much.”
The little girl has three brain malformations, and she needs surgeries to survive.
One night, about a month ago, Liza’s mother found her gasping for air. She first thought her child was having a nightmare, but it turned out Liza was having seizures. Elizabeth explains:
“With more testing, they determined it was not just irregular brain activity, that there was actually something more serious.”
However, the doctors were unsure of the exact cause that triggers the seizures. Scott adds that they will find out only after they treat the vascular malformations.
Tragically, the child suffers not one but three brain malformations – a schizencephaly, a parietal arteriovenous malformation, and a dural arteriovenous fistula. Since there are only a few specialists who can perform the surgeries she needs to live, she and her parents will have to keep traveling to Boston Children’s Hospital from her home in Alabama. Unfortunately, the insurance Scott has is not enough to cover all the costs.
When Liza found out her family needs to raise money for her surgeries, she decided to help.
At only 7-years-old, Liza was aware enough to know how difficult it would be for her parents to cover the costs during her visits to the hospital. So, she decided to set up a lemonade stand and raise money to help them.
Her mother encouraged her and built the lemonade stand, where little Liza sells a glass of the refreshing drink for 25 cents. Elizabeth also created a Mighty Cause page raising donations for her girl. Surprised by all the support she receives online, she shares:
“It just keeps pouring in. That’s just an unbelievable amount of love and support. There aren’t even words. It’s hard to wrap your head around it.”
Kindhearted donators helped the family raise over $380,000. Meanwhile, the courageous little girl raised $15,000 in cash while selling lemonade. Her grateful mother says:
“We’re excited for her and we’re sharing her success with her but we also want this to be a learning opportunity to understand grace and kindness. She definitely feels special. She’ll have ongoing medical care for years because she’ll have to have MRIs and angiograms, and medication for the long haul. We have a long road ahead but we’re going to fight it and do what we have to do to make sure we stay well.”
With some of the extra money the family raised, they will try to help other families who need financial support with their children’s medical care. Elizabeth adds:
“Liza loves to help others. We would love to be able to help other families in our shoes — once we’re past the big hurdles.”
