Kid Battling Cancer Raises Nearly $150K for Charity with Lemonade Stands

Mario Carpino, a 10-year-old boy who is battling inoperable brain tumors, has raised nearly $150,000 for a cancer foundation. And now he’s campaigning for his idol, Jon Bon Jovi to attend his next charity lemonade stand on June 7.

Back in December 2007, when he was 4 years old, Mario told his mother that his left arm hurt. “He walked up to me holding his arm to his chest and I thought he may have a pinched nerve, so I took him to the doctor,” Mario’s mom, Anna Carpino, tells Yahoo Shine.

The doctor suggested that Mario get a CT scan to make sure it was nothing serious but Carpino was shocked when she received the results a few days later. “The doctor said Mario had one inoperable brain tumor," she says. "The following day, an MRI revealed three more tumors and we were told he had only three months to live." Mario immediately started chemotherapy and his tumors started shrinking over the course of the next year and a half. However, one year later, a tumor grew back and Mario resumed treatment for the following eight months. “Mario’s last chemo treatment was in March 2012, and while he still has brain tumors, they are stable, although he gets scanned every three months to make sure they haven't grown," says Carpino.

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To keep up his spirits and help other kids with cancer, Mario has become involved with an organization called Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, which raises awareness and money to fund grants for pediatric cancer research. A married couple from Connecticut launched the organization in 2005, one year after their 8-year-old daughter, Alex Scott, passed away from neuroblastoma, a common infant cancer that accounts for seven percent of all cancers in children. During her short life, Alex hosted an annual lemonade stand (she raised $2,000 in one day for her first one) and donated the funds to cancer research. After Alex’s death, her parents created a foundation to continue her efforts and kids like Mario hold yearly lemonade stands in her honor.

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Mario has exceeded his fundraising goals each year, a portion of which he earns at his annual lemonade stand, the rest through online donations. He wanted to raise $5,000 when he held his first stand in 2011. He ending up raising $25,134. In 2012, he raised $48,517, execeeding his goal of $25,000. And in 2013, Mario set his goal at $50,000 and brought in $68,542. People can also donate to Mario's cause on his event page.

Mario is now in fourth grade at Charles G. Harker School in Woolwich Township, New Jersey. “Two years ago, he decided that he wanted his favorite singer, Bon Jovi, to come to his lemonade stand,” says Carpino. “I told him it’s unlikely because Bon Jovi is famous. He said, ‘But Mom, he's so nice.' So that year, we reached out to Bon Jovi through Twitter, Facebook, an online petition, and whatever personal connections we had.” Although the Carpinos never heard from the star, they still hope that he'll visit Mario’s lemonade stand this year. Mario even created a Facebook page — Mario's Fight to Get Bon Jovi to His Lemonade Stand in June — where people can follow his quest to reach his favorite singer.

This year's event will be held at the Woolwich Fire Department in Swedesboro, New Jersey, in part because Mario has wanted to be a fireman for years (the department named him an honorary firefighter in 2012). There will be face painting, clowns, an inflatable fire truck slide, DJs, and a raffle for prizes. This year, Mario has raised $2,500 so far and his goal is $60,000. "I'm so proud of him," says Carpino. "Mario is always thinking about other people. He's an old soul."

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