One cup at a time: Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation

Alexandra "Alex" Scott was born in Manchester, Connecticut in 1996, the second of four children. Shortly before her first birthday, she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer.

On her first birthday, the doctors told her parents that if she beat her cancer, it was doubtful she would ever walk. A year later, she was crawling and able to stand with leg braces. She willed herself to walk, and appeared to be getting better, until the shattering discovery within the next year that the tumors had returned. At age four, she received a stem cell transplant and told her mother, "When I get out of the hospital I want to have a lemonade stand." She wanted to give the money to doctors to help them find a cure. She held her first lemonade stand later that year, and raised $2,000 for "her hospital."

Alex continued to hold yearly lemonade stands in her front yard to benefit childhood cancer research. News spread, and people all over the world held their own lemonade stands and donated the proceeds to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

In August 2004, Alex passed away at age eight, knowing she had helped raise over $1 million to find a cure for children with cancer. Her three brothers and supporters are committed to continue her legacy.

Advice: Live with Alex as your role model.

Read another young hero’s story.

This is drawn from the foundation's bio of Alex.