Lily Adkins has had some major accomplishments in life.
She is graduating next week from high school. She is a national rowing champion. She has raised money for pediatric cancer patients. She is a world record holder for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer. And possibly most importantly, she has beaten cancer.
Adkins, now 18, was diagnosed with a regular ependymoma brain tumor in May 2007 at 14 months old. In the weeks leading up to her diagnosis at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), she was throwing up, began to lose her balance and stopped crawling.
At CHOP, Adkins had a full removal of the tumor, but then had to leave her Haddon Twp. home to go to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for six weeks of proton radiation therapy. She has had several surgeries over the years. She has had clean MRIs since August 2007. For 16 years, she received weekly physical and occupational therapy, but in June 2019 was discharged from PT.
Although doctors believed at first that Adkins would not be mobile again, she was able to walk, run, sail, ride horseback, dance ballet and hip-hop – and pursue her dream of rowing. Although at the end of her freshman year her shunt failed, sidelining her from the sport, she switched from the school team to the South Jersey Rowing Club and made it twice to the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships. Last weekend, she placed second in the country!
After graduating next week from Haddon Township High School, Adkins will move on to Dominican University in Orangeburg, New York, where she’ll attend college on a competitive rowing scholarship while she pursues a degree in special education. She plans to become a teacher while also coaching youth pararowing and advocating for other disabled athletes.
Over the years, Adkins – who is now 15 years cancer-free – has been a big supporter of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and has raised more than $160,000 for childhood cancer research and programs. With her siblings Chloe and Nicholas, she hosts lemonade stands in her front yard or a nearby park every year. Her entire family participates in The Million Mile for ALSF race in September.
She is a recent recipient of the Ronald McDonald House Kim Hill Scholarship, which is awarded to a childhood cancer survivor based on academic, athletic and community accomplishments.
She will continue her efforts with a fundraiser on Saturday as part of this month’s 20th anniversary of Lemonade Days, which has raised over $20.5 million through 30,000 stands nationwide. From 12-3 pm June 15 she’ll set up her Grand Lemonade Stand at her home at 1103 Eldridge Ave. in Haddon Twp., along with the world record-breaking “Largest Cup of Lemonade” that is 10 feet tall and holds 1,750 gallons.
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