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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Nicole Brown   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, October 12, 2007 Fighting cancer with every glass she sold One summer we had a sidewalk lemonade stand. Our mail carrier took pity on the kids and made a $1 purchase, boosting profits to about two bucks. Nine-year-old Nicole Brown has us beat by more than $2,066. The Camano Island girl, helped by her sister Samantha, spent the Saturday of Labor Day weekend hawking lemonade outside an auto parts store. It wasn't for mad money. Their big pink sign read: "Lemonade for Breast Cancer." On Sunday, Nicole and her family will walk in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event in Bellevue. As of Thursday, her donation added up to $2,068.31. This will be Nicole's third year walking with a team from the Providence Everett Comprehensive Breast Center. "We adore her," said Gemma Lindsley-Beld, who works in admitting at the breast center in Providence Everett Medical Center's Pavilion for Women and Children. The center's walking team is about 30 strong. They call themselves the Treasure Chest. "She woke up one morning wanting to do this," Lindsley-Beld said of Nicole, who is home-schooled by her parents, Stephen and Tracey Brown, and is a competitive figure skater. When Nicole was 7, her mother said, she got up one day insisting she'd heard a voice. "She said, 'I was laying in bed and a voice in my head said to raise money for breast cancer,' " Tracey Brown said. "It was out of the blue." Although Brown said both Nicole's grandmothers have multiple sclerosis, "I didn't want to question her. I never asked why." Mother and daughter both believe Nicole's breast-cancer cause is tied to the family's devout Christian faith. "If God has given her this cause, OK Lord, she's yours," Brown said. It wasn't long after Nicole said she'd heard the voice that she had $17 collected in a Mason jar. "So I contacted Providence Everett Medical Center," Brown said. Of several donation options, they chose the Making Strides walk. "She was 7," Brown said. "This will be her third walk." Last October, a close friend of Brown's who had taught piano to her daughters was diagnosed with breast cancer. "She's in her late 30s. That was a shock. And it all fell into place," Brown said. The disease claims more than 40,000 lives annually in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. About 211,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Their friend Loriann Vaughn's struggle with breast cancer gave new purpose to the lemonade stand Nicole and Samantha set up Sept. 1 outside Camano Auto Parts on Highway 532. Store owner Jerry Ward said he's known the girls' father "ever since he was 2 feet tall." "Her dad and I donated all the supplies," Brown said. They served Country Time pink lemonade and sugar-free Crystal Light, but some folks didn't take a sip. "They just came to donate," Brown said. In three years, Nicole has raised serious money. "The first year, she raised about $1,500. The second year, it was $1,700, and her goal this year was $2,000," said Providence Everett Medical Center spokeswoman Cheri Russum. Nicole spoke as the Distinguished Youth Fundraiser at a recent Making Strides kickoff breakfast at Seattle's Safeco Field. She is listed on the event Web site as one of the top 10 individual donors for the walk. That's some achievement for a pint-size fundraiser selling lemonade by the cup. In her job at the Providence breast center, Lindsley-Beld sees not pink ribbons or statistics. She sees real women, every day. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Lindsley-Beld said the center pushes the message of health and prevention year-round. She's involved in planning a survivors tea for about 120 women Oct. 21 at Everett's Monte Cristo ballroom. "We consider them survivors when they're first diagnosed. That's when the journey begins," said Lindsley-Beld, who'll walk Sunday with Nicole. "They come in just for hugs sometimes. They're an amazing group of women." Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

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