For Goodness Sake: Super T Foundation
PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Taylor Nearon's Mom Tammy remembers her daughter fondly.
"Taylor was pretty remarkable, she could walk into a room and just light it up with her smile," said Tammy.
Taylor was a well-liked teen soccer star and best friends with her mom. In the midst of all of the wonderful things that Taylor was, she started suffering from serious illness that Tammy says nobody could really understand.
"It was something that no one in this area had ever seen we couldn't understand why."
Literally out of nowhere Taylor's body just started failing her. Tammy says that the most common things became life threatening to her daughter.
"Scents, smells, food, things we take for granted on a daily basis. If the sun hit her skin the wrong way she broke out in hives," said Tammy.
Too many things to describe sent Taylor into shock that required emergency treatment to keep her breathing. A couple of years and many tests later, Taylor was diagnosed with a rare disease called Mast Cell. Still a teen, she knew things weren't good for her but she wanted to help others.
"She was like Mom, no one deserves this, you don't deserve to have to go through this as a parent, I don't deserve to go through this, I want to do something," said Tammy.
The teen who had become known as "Super T" by her friends and family began working with Mom on developing a foundation.
Her strong will led to Super T's Mast Cell Foundation. They spread awareness, raised funds to give to mast cell families and had an annual Superhero Race all while Taylor continued to fight. But sadly the constant medical challenges became too much.
"She said I'm ready to go be with Jesus and I said ok. That's when she said don't ever forget me and I said I'll never forget you. She said make sure you do the foundation."
For two years Taylor was there during the superhero run but this year on an October weekend after passing away, her mother is convinced that Taylor looked down on the hundreds dressed as superheroes keeping her dream alive.
"The messages that I'm receiving is that they felt so supported, for the first time in a long time they're like people who don't even know us are championing us. And that's what Taylor wanted."
The foundation has now raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support mast cell families and hopefully spread awareness so that others with the rare disease will be diagnosed faster and have better chances of survival.
Taylor may have only lived to be 20-years-old, but because of her strength and her mother's dedication, Super T and her commitment to others will live forever, for goodness sake.