CANTON, MASS. (WHDH) - “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade” may just be a figure of speech, but it’s one that spurred 9-year-old Liam Doherty into action.
Doherty was just 6 years old when he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a disease without a cure.
So, he’s raising money with a lemonade stand to help fund research, and he’s already raised a whole lot of money.
“My mom was talking to me, and she was like, ‘well, you can either hide this disease and nothing will happen or you can express it and raise money and start doing stuff for it,’ so that’s what we did,” Doherty said.
On Friday in Canton, Doherty, with the help of family and friends, organized a lemonade stand to raise money to fight Crohn’s Disease, an autoimmune condition that attacks the intestines.
“It was hard,” said Liam’s mother, Lauren. “You don’t want anything to be wrong with your kids, so when there is it’s pretty devastating.”
Lauren says last year, the permanence of the disease really got Liam down. His family told him he could stay sad if he wanted to or he could take action.
“When life hands you lemons, Liam, you make lemonade, so he said ‘that’s just it, we’ll do a lemonade stand,'” Lauren said.
Liam’s lemonade stand and bake sale has now raised more than $13,000 to help support Crohn’s research at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Liam says it’s all thanks to the support of his friends and family.
“I’m so happy that everyone came,” he said. “It’s really huge to me.”
And, Liam has a message of thanks for his doctors, too. They are working hard to help him and others turn lemons into lemonade.
“Keep working, and I really appreciate it,” he said. “It’s a huge help. Thank you.”
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