NORFOLK, Va. — Last year, 11-year-old Jackie Meeks was undergoing chemotherapy at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD). This summer, she's cancer-free and raising money for other local children at the hospital.
Jackie was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer last summer after she started feeling sick during a softball tournament. While she underwent treatment at CHKD, her friends hosted an Anthem LemonAid stand in her honor. The program raises money for local pediatric cancer treatment programs every year from July 18 to Aug. 3.
Her friends' stand raised $22,000. As a LemonAid ambassador this year, Jackie and her family are hoping to beat that number. Jackie hosted a stand on Friday on the lawn outside CHKD so that children in the oncology ward could see.
Jackie's mom, Katie Meeks, said that community support meant everything to her family when they were in the hospital.
"When you're up there and you're isolated, knowing that there's support out there and people that are your friends and love you and strangers, it means a lot," Katie Meeks said. "It gives you that will and that hope."
Over 200 lemonade stands will be hosted in Hampton Roads this summer, all working towards CHKD's $100,000 goal. Anthem LemonAid provides all the supplies for a lemonade stand — and Jackie's featured friendship bracelets, pound cake and a face painting station.
"It means a lot to me cause I know I'm doing it for the kids inside there, and I was once where they were," Jackie said.
Donations are accepted on their website.
