How a family facing pediatric cancer found extra support at a local grocery store

Aidan Marcus is a soft-spoken 9-year-old who likes to play old-school video games and ride his bike. But life wasn't always so carefree.

His mom, Lisa, said he got sick when he was just two and a half years old. Doctors thought it was a virus, but Lisa noticed bruises all over his body.

"The mom-gut feeling" was activated, she said.

Mom's intuition was right. They went back to the doctor.

"She said, 'Let's do chest X-ray and some bloodwork and said 'Why don't you wait,' and that's when I knew, like, OK, this is very serious," Lisa said.

It was leukemia. Aidan immediately began treatment.

"He felt awful. He stopped walking. He stopped talking. And basically the goal is to get him to remission after the first 30 days," Lisa said.

Aidan was declared in remission, but that didn't mean treatment was finished. That lasted three more years.

Aidan doesn't remember much from that time, thank goodness.

But his mom remembers the kindness of others, especially at her local Aldi grocery store.

"The cashier asked if we wanted to donate anything toward Alex's Lemonade Stand, and I started to cry. I said, you know, my son was just diagnosed with cancer. And she started to cry, too, and she's like, 'Oh, you know what, he's going to be OK, he's going to be fine, I just know it;" Lisa said.

Lisa says she'd take Aidan to the store to get his favorite veggie straws, and that same cashier would give him little toys.

Even Aidan's sister, Ava, loved going to Aldi to check out the Alex's merchandise.

"I think it was really such a neat thing for her because it normalized it, like, oh, this isnt just me and my brother, there are so many other kids that this matters," Lisa said.

Aldi's community giving manager Jason Schultz said he's proud of that cashier and proud of the promise Aldi made to Alex's — to raise $10 million dollars by 2027.

"Employees have wrapped their arms around this; it's become part of our culture," Schultz said.

For the Marcus family, life goes on normally for the most part.

"His body is affected and there have been side effects and things that we need to keep an eye on for years to come, and so I think that that's where it's so important to encourage and advocate for Alex's," Lisa said.

The family hosts lemonade stands, raising thousands of dollars for Alex's.

"Every time we do a lemonade stand, it's always, 'Oh I gotta send it to Alex's,' because pediatric cancer research is so needed," Lisa said.

Join CBS Philadelphia for the 20th annual Alex Scott A Stand for Hope Telethon, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Funds are being raised for childhood cancer research. To donate anytime, visit here.