Boy’s fight ends; spirit of hope lives

When life gave John Taggart lemons, he made lemonade. About $10,000’s worth.

On a warm day in June last year, the 5-year-old from Costa Mesa gathered his friends and family and helped organize a massive lemonade stand at Fashion Island to raise money for a medical charity.

It was a cause very close to John’s heart. The $10,000 he raised would be donated to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a national foundation committed to fighting neuroblastoma, a rare cancer John had been battling nearly all his life.

Today, thirsty shoppers will once more have the chance to buy some lemonade from the charitable stand, but one very important person will be missing.

In October, John died of his illness after a three-year battle. Despite his absence, John’s parents, Tamara and Kelly Taggart, said they plan to push ahead with this year’s lemonade stand and continue to raise money for the foundation started by Alexandra “Alex” Scott, an 8-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who died of neuroblastoma in 2004.

“It will be sad not to have him here,” Tamara Taggart said of today’s lemonade sale. “We have mixed emotions. Everything we do since he passed away is with mixed emotions, but now he’ll be smiling down on us from heaven.”

John was diagnosed in 2002 with the rare cancer that affects about 600 American children each year. The cause of neuroblastoma is unknown although most physicians believe that it is an accidental cell growth that occurs during development of the adrenal glands.

For John, the tumors first began in his stomach, and he had to battle the cancer with radiation and chemotherapy.

“He would undergo treatments that most adults would need to be sedated for,” his mother said. “When he would go in for radiation treatments, he would just take off his shirt and hop right on the table.”

It was his courage, his father Kelly said, that inspired so many of his family members to stay strong.

John was “by far the toughest and bravest person I’d ever met,” Kelly, a Los Angeles city firefighter, told the Daily Pilot in an October interview.

And sadly, each time John would get better, his family would later be disappointed when the cancer returned.

“He would get in remission, we would have great summers, but then oddly it seemed to relapse in the fall,” his mother said. “Once you relapse, there really is no cure. You just try all these new treatments to extend life, but eventually you run out of options.”

John’s parents tried cranial spinal radiation and a stem cell transplant, but the little boy would only get worse. He suffered kidney failure and cardiac arrest. On Oct. 21, with his parents and family members by his side, John died.

“We’d given him permission to stop fighting and go to Heaven,” his father said at the time.

Dozens of friends and family members will gather today to pay tribute to the young boy and continue the charity event he helped create. Retailer Lululemon Athletica will provide the space for the lemonade stand, and Coca-Cola has donated Minute Maid lemonade. A refrigeration truck from Ralph’s will be on hand to keep the drinks cool for visitors. The stand will be open all day in front of Lululemon near Bloomingdale’s.

“Last year we got checks for $500 and then we had children bringing their coins,” volunteer Allison Olmstead said. “It was really touching to see everyone come out.”

The money will be sent to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a foundation that is coordinating fundraisers across the country today. Last year the charity raised $4 million for cancer research.dpt.10-lemonade-CPhotoInfoIB1RRH6620060610ihzygeknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Claire Olmstead, left, Lucas Mowery and John Olmstead, 4, ran a lemonade stand last year. It raised money for cancer research.