Kylie's Kids: Meet Kylie

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- This week's Kylie's Kid has a familiar name – Kylie!

This Kylie is 11 years old and loves music and sports. She is a Special Olympian but she also puts on a golf tournament every year to help other kids who battle seizures, just like she does.

"She loves music, she loves being with her family," Maria Gibbons, Kylie's mom, said. "She's a really happy, outgoing kid."

Kylie has just wrapped up fifth grade and loves the warmer weather.

"She's super excited for summer," Maria said.

Besides competing in the Special Olympics for running, bowling and swimming, she's also on year 12 of a golf tournament in her name.

"It's a blast," Maria said. "We had a lot of people who helped us and this is our way of giving back."

Kylie was born with Tuberous Sclerosis, which is a genetic condition that causes tumors to form in different organs.

"A lot of kids are born with heart tumors, tumors in their eyes, their kidneys," Maria said.

For Kylie, it just affects her brain.

"The rest of her other organs are thankfully not affected," said Maria. "In her case, she has 26 'tubors,' they're like hard calcifications in her brain."

Those tubors caused uncontrolled seizures for the first three years of her life.

"She's never been a candidate for brain surgery, so we had to figure out the best medication to control the seizures," Maria said.

Kylie's family found one of the best specialists in the Midwest right here at Children's Minnesota in St. Paul.

"Super lucky and we were in the right place at the right time," Maria said. "Nine days after her third birthday she started a new seizure medication and it was amazing. She has not really been in the hospital at all since then, so the last 8 years she's been pretty stable."

Now mostly seizure free, Kylie can focus on giving back. Her family started the nonprofit, Kylie's Hope.

"We give part of it to Children's for the neuroscience center," said Maria. "And the other half goes directly to the families."

The golf tournament will be held on Saturday, Aug. 13 at the River Oaks Public Golf Course in Maple Grove. Registration check-in is at 11:30 a.m. with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. Visit here for more information on the tournament or to donate.