CULLMAN. Ala. – “It’s amazing that all the people have come, I must say! I didn’t even know that the word would spread this quickly,” exclaimed 10-year-old Lucas Rhodes as he manned his lemonade stand on Thursday at Cornerstone Church of the Nazarene with his sister and brothers.
As he placed a brand-new cowboy hat on Lucas’s head, Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry told him, “If you go by Briscoe’s, tell them to put my band, a sheriff’s office band, on it.”
The size 7 ¼ hat was a smidge big on the boy’s head but his mom Lindsay was not concerned.
“If his hair grows back as thick as it was, the hat will fit just right,” she laughed, “This has made his day!”
In May of last year, Lucas’ family found a knot on his head. Initially thinking the rambunctious boy had bumped his head, the family consulted with his pediatrician a few weeks later when it remained. After the determination that the bump was solid, it was removed on June 22, 2021. On July 6, the dreaded diagnosis was given.
Not only was the diagnosis cancer, but it was a rare, aggressive childhood cancer called Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma.
After undergoing 42 weeks of treatment at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Lucas is in the home stretch, with his last treatment scans scheduled for Thursday, and ending the rigorous chemotherapy and radiation treatments. From there, he will undergo treatment every three months.
The thought of a lemonade stand sustained Lucas during the harrowing days and nights of chemotherapy and radiation.
“He’s always wanted to have a lemonade stand. During his treatments, the lows would happen so often. We were in the hospital so much that he never could have one. I told him that, when he got better and to a point that he could, we would have one. Towards the end of his treatment, he was always asked when we would be having it,” shared his mom.
As for the money he’s earned at his lemonade stand, Lucas has his sights on seeing the country this summer. He plans to hit the roads, seeing many national landmarks including Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park with his family.
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