POWELL

Bearden football player and 6-year-old bond to fight childhood cancer

Ruth White
Knoxville

It is an unlikely friendship. A high school senior football player and a 6-year-old girl with a low grade glioma brain tumor diagnosed when she was 15 months old.

Before the 2018 football season, Bearden High kicker Connor Cross attended a Kohl's kicking camp. At the end of the camp, attendees were able to pick a charity to kick for and help raise money. He selected Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, and in his first year with the Kick-It Program, Cross raised $3,500. His goal this year is $5,000. 

Enter Tillery Phillips, the spunky little ambassador for Alex's Lemonade Stand. Tillery has gone through multiple surgeries and chemotherapy since  her diagnosis in 2014. Today, her tumor is not terminal and has remained stable for over three years. 

Cross had invited Tillery to be an honorary captain at a Bearden football game last season, and she returned to Bearden this year for the coin toss in the Sept. 13 game against Bradley Central. She also set up her Alex's Lemonade Stand outside the Bearden High stadium to raise money for childhood cancer research. Volvo matched the funds raised that weekend for ALSF.

Connor's mom, Stephanie Cross, was surprised at how quickly they became friends. "It warms my heart to see how this experience has changed Connor," she said. "I was worried that Tillery wouldn't want to go out on the field with the football players but she took right to Connor."

Tillery Phillips is welcomed to the field at Bearden High School by senior kicker Connor Cross on Friday, Sept. 13, 2019. Tillery served as honorary captain for the night alongside Cross and the other team captains. The 6-year-old met him last season when Cross began kicking to raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand against childhood cancer.

Alex's Lemonade Stand played a huge role in assisting the Phillips family with accommodations while in Cincinnati after Tillery's diagnosis in 2014. Since then, the Phillips family has formed an official partnership with ALSF through a Hero Fund named in her honor. The TIL Fund specifically funds pediatric brain tumor research. 

Tillery Phillips hosted Alex's Lemonade Stand at the Bearden homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 13, 2019. The stand served cups of cold lemonade for a donation to help fight childhood cancer.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and the Phillips family has hosted various events around town to raise money for research. They are hosting a rummage sale 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28 at Norwood United Methodist Church, 2110 Merchant Drive, with all proceeds going to childhood cancer research. 

Donations to the TIL Fund to support the Phillips family’s September fundraising efforts can be made online here: https://alsf.me/1683934 or can be mailed to TIL Fund, PO Box 12052, Knoxville, TN 37912.