Aiden’s Avengers host run/walk event

Aiden Taylor, a second-grader at Shepard Elementary, continued to fight cancer this week.

On Sunday, his family and friends gathered at Perry Phillips Park in south Columbia to participate in a run/walk event to fight the battle with him.

All proceeds from the events and fundraisers his Avengers have held so far go to support the family’s expenses at home while they’re away at the hospital.

ABC 17 News first met Taylor in February when he and his family learned of his rare form of cancer called, “medulloblastoma.” Spinal and brain surgeries left him without the ability to walk or talk.

Soon after, Taylor and his family left to St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis to begin radiation the tumors along his spine and brain. Now, three months later, he is talking and learning how to walk again.

After taking a month-long break to come back home and recover from the radiation, Taylor will return to Memphis with his family for seven months to receive chemotherapy treatments.

Doctors told Taylor’s parents, Lisa and Josh, that there was a 65 percent chance he would be cancer-free at the end of this treatment.

“He knows the little things he does…it’s really a big thing and that it’s a good accomplishment,” Lisa Taylor told ABC 17 News. “Even staying at school the whole day, he was so happy to be able to do that. It was a huge thing. His little body is tired, it’s fighting every day. So, he’s very proud of himself. He’s know that he’s working hard.”

Taylor threw the first pitch at the Mizzou baseball game last Friday. It was part of “The Room of Hope,” which selected him to receive a new bedroom. He got to see his new room on Saturday.

You can learn more about Aiden and his Avengers by visiting their website.