Alexandra Scott

Many people all over the world are dying from cancer. People are working very hard to try to discover a cure. But you don’t hear too much about young children helping to discover this cure. They’re often too young to understand how cancer is causing many serious problems all around the globe, but Alexandra Scott cared. She was diagnosed with a special kind of cancer and did not want anyone else to go through what she did. Even though she was very sick, she tried to help other kids so they could be cured. That is the definition of a true hero.

Two days before Alex’s first birthday, she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma cancer. But Alex wanted to make a difference. When she was only four years old, she decided she wanted to hold a lemonade stand. She was going to donate all the funds to the Connecticut Children’s Center Hospital. Alex’s first lemonade stand was up and running on her front lawn in July of 2000. It was a huge success. The first lemonade stand raised over 2 thousand dollars. This was only the beginning for Alex. She planed to raise 1 million dollars!

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For four years Alex held her annual lemonade stand, even when she moved to Philadelphia for more treatments. Alex’s family made the Alex’s Lemonade foundation to support Alex and to raise money. She managed to raise 7 hundred thousand dollars before she passed away when she was only eight years old. Though she didn’t reach her goal before she died, people from all over donated to Alex’s cause and finally reached the 1 million dollars mark.

In T.A Barron’s book, The Hero’s Trial, they discuss many different heroes and which specific kind of hero they fit. Alex would probably fit every kind of hero because she was such a remarkable young girl. But one main type of hero she would be is the “hero within.” In this section, Barron talks about how different heroes are struck with devastating diseases but they still manage to keep their head held high, and work to get better. Even though Alex was never cured, she still never gave up and tried to get better. Alex Scott also would fit “hero to other near and far” because even though she had a terrible sickness, she still tried to help other kids become cured by raising money. She didn’t know most of these kids, and they lived thousands of miles away from her. But that didn’t matter to her. She still wanted to help.

Even though Alex passed away at a young age, she still lives on. Alex’s Lemonade Stand is still raising money for childhood cancer. Now bottles of her lemonade are being sold at many drug stores. Alex’s foundation has come a long way, and so has cancer research thanks to Alex. Even though she was sick, she didn’t even stop to think about herself in her time of need. She just wanted to help make other kids better. Alex Scott will always be remembered as a true hero and how she was dedicated to doing everything she could do to help other kids.