BIRMINGHAM - AL -
It's been a rough time for 15 year old Baileigh Phillips as she sits proudly on a motorcycle. Baileigh is enjoying every second she lives; her parents call her their miracle child.
"She's a blessing; she's just got the best attitude," says her mother Dixie Phillips. Her father Johnny Phillips says, "She's full of spirit, loving, strong, and more courageous than I would be."
Baileigh was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was just ten years old.
Johnny Phillips says, "She's been through several surgeries, radiation, five different chemo regiments." Dixie Phillips says, "It's hard to feel anything in the beginning because everything is moving so fast."
That's why 235 bikers came out to ride with children and teens like Baileigh, raising money for research.
Stacy Ashby with "Birmingham Ride for Kids" says, "It's an incredible feeling to be involved in a organization like this, you get to see, the benefits that these families receive from the treatments that are able to fund the research. it allows them to have their children get healthy and to grow and to go to college and get their drivers license and it's just extraordinary to watch it happen over the years." Ashby says "Ride For Kids" is important because brain tumors can affect anybody's child.
"It can be your grandchild, your niece, your nephew, your brother, your sister. Cancer doesn't care who it affects," says Ashby.
And although Baileigh is fighting a deadly tumor, her spirits are high, and enjoying the ride called life.
Baileigh Phillips says, "It's grown back so we started on a new treatment in hopes that it'll get smaller again."
"Ride for Kids" raised $71,456.
