Fighting Cancer With Lemonade

Young Girl Raises Research Money At 50 Cents Per Glass

(CBS)  In a picture-perfect house on the most idyllic street, the prettiest little girl fights the ugliest of battles.

Alex Scott has had cancer for most of her seven years. Her family told CBS News Correspondent Tracy Smith Scott's battle began a week short of her first birthday when doctors found a malignant tumor on her spine.

"We were told she would never walk, that she was paralyzed from the chest down," says her father Jay Scott.

But Scott kept trying to get up and eventually, she willed herself to walk. With that battle won, the young cancer survivor decided to take on the disease itself, with a lemonade stand.

CBS' Smith asked Scott to explain her lemonade project, the young activist said, "I raise money [for] cancer research."

Scott said the work is important to her "because it's helping people."

For the past three summers, Scott's lemonade stand has been mobbed, and her money jar has filled many times over.

She told Smith she has raised over $110,000 since she started the stand.

Scott's own battle is still ongoing. Doctors describe her condition as extremely guarded—but her willingness to fight for others has meant more than anything money could buy.

"It just makes me happy. I mean, I feel like she's everything, not just how you ant your kids to be, but everything you'd want to be as a person," says Scott's mother.

"It makes me proud. It makes me feel grateful. It makes me feel like anybody can do anything despite what anyone might tell you," she says.

Meanwhile, Alex Scott has taken an old adage and turned it literally into words to live by: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," she says.