Kveller.com  

2/27/2015

Maya Rigler is 10-years-old. Her favorite color is blue, she loves reading the Percy Jackson series, going to Camp Harlam (a URJ summer camp in the Poconos), and getting fro-yo with her friends. Sadly, Maya started 2015 by finding out she had a malignant tumor.

Maya took the news as a call to action. When word spread about her illness and she started getting presents, Maya said, “I don’t need all this stuff.” Instead, she set up a virtual lemonade stand for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a unique childhood cancer charity that has donated millions of dollars to research and support for families going through this ordeal. Maya’s goal was to raise $10,000. As she wrote on her fundraising page, “Maybe one day we can make sure that no other kid needs to go through this stuff.”

That was just a month ago. Maya has currently raised almost $78,000.

Maya’s resilient and generous spirit is no news to her friends and family. When she was 2, she was treated for a Wilms’ tumor, which is a rare kidney cancer affecting primarily children. For Maya, it meant eight months of surgery and chemotherapy. But by the time she blew out the candles on her third birthday cake, Maya was cancer-free.

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