Five Year Old Jack Yeilding Is A Lemonade Machine In Oakville, Ontario

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

Jack is a patient at Toronto's Sick Kids. The little boy has a form of epilepsy that requires him to take 19 pills a day and follow a Ketogenic diet. He suffers from intractable epilepsy, a form that does not respond to typical medications.

The little boy who has at times suffered from daily seizures is being evaluated for brain surgery. His diet is strict, there are no sugary foods like cookies, candy or birthday cake that most little kids love to devour. Jack at five already knows how to check his own blood sugar with a finger prick.

This is the second year that Jack has raised money for the hospital by manning a lemonade stand that he and his dad built with materials from the local Home Depot. Last year brought in over $14,000. That was not bad for a man all of four.

This year's mega-stand was open for two days. On May 3 he was outside Longo's supermarket. There was also a car wash event on May 10. Still Saturday's stand was a sight to behold outside of his Oakville home. The lemonade stand kept customers cool while they were entertained by pony rides, carnival games, the Home Depot Kids workshop and a fire show by local busker Brant Matthews. His doctors were on hand along with Lieutenant Governor David Onley, Argonauts CEO Pinball Clemons, Oakville Mayor Rob Burton and a team of Oakville firefighters.

"Despite his medical condition, Jack is determined to turn his lemons into lemonade by holding an annual lemonade stand to help his friends at SickKids," said his mom Jodie Yeilding.

Jack recently received the “Kids Believe in SickKids Spirit Award” and is an ambassador for the hospital that he's a frequent patient at.

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder of children. One out of 100 children has epilepsy and at any moment the child can be seized. One day, seizures seized Jack. He decided to seize them back. At SickKids we work day and night on ways to cure epilepsy, and we are making headway. Please help us help Jack seize his life back”

Berge A. Minassian MD
Canada Research Chair in Paediatric Neurogenetics
Epileptologist and Scientist,
SickKids Hospital, Toronto, ON

If you want to help pad Jack's donation to Sick Kid's Foundation you can donate online here.