As teen girls around America paint their nails and go to malls with friends after school, 13-year-old Emma Allred spends her time thinking about ways to give back.
Allred was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at the age of ten and thanks to the Idaho Make-A-Wish foundation, she was given an opportunity to make one of her wildest dreams come true. She could select anything she wanted – a date with a Hollywood Star, a night in the Princess Castle at Disney. Finally, after weeks of deliberating, Emma came up with the perfect wish.
To everyone’s surprise, it had nothing to do with her. In a beautifully selfless act, Emma decided to help others instead.
The first person she told about the wish was her mother.
“‘Mom, I know what I want to wish for. I want to help the homeless.'”
And she followed through on that promise. On Oct. 1 Allred hosted a food drive to benefit local shelters in Town Falls, Idaho. Through her efforts, she raised about 13,000 pounds of food and had organizations and a grocery story contribute to her collection.
During the 24-hours, her local Idaho community, made it a special event by having balloons, pizza and people involved.
When it was all said and done, Emma stated, “It felt very good to help them.”
Explaining, “In reality, the more you give, the more people smile. It helps their day.” Adding in, “If I can help someone, I’ll help.”
Emma’s mother also chimed in and provided her family’s reaction to the 24-hour time period, “We were overwhelmed in a very good way. I shouldn’t be surprised that this was her wish because she’s always helped people. The first thing I’d think of is me. Where can I go? Who can I meet? Not to think of others.”
The inspirational choice to give back and the young girl’s positive attitude about life as well as cancer is based on the family’s faith.
Nina stated, “Just believing that God is in control and that he knows what he’s doing is a big help.” Especially during a time of turmoil.
Emma was first diagnosed in elementary school with ovarian cancer with what the medical community has called an uncommon discovery.
According to Nathan Meeker of St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute who discussed the chances of children being diagnosed with this said, this is quite rare, explaining that, “ovarian tumors represent only about 1 percent of all tumors seen in the pediatric population.”
Meeker said based on Allred’s germ cell tumor of the ovaries, chemotherapy cancer treatment was the most effective the first time around to People Magazine .
As of late, Allred was disease free from 2013-2015 but was slammed with sad news in the form of a mass, which was located on the young girl’s liver.
At this time doctor’s are unable to tell if it is cancerous or not and say it will be removed on Nov. 1. The hope is, is that it is benign but doctor’s will not know until they go in.
(H/T People Magazine)