Teenager Who Survives Brain Cancer Raises Over $30,000 for St. Jude Showing Pigs
When Maddie Barber was 12 years old, she started to have trouble with balance and coordination. All of a sudden, she couldn’t serve a volleyball. She stumbled into walls when she was walking. She slipped going up and down the stairs.
“I developed periodic double vision and headaches. My symptoms just kept getting worse and then I started vomiting each morning. My parents thought I probably was developing migraines like my aunt did at my age,” Maddie explains.
Her pediatrician was very concerned about the symptoms and scheduled her for a follow-up a few days later. In just those few days, her symptoms progressed.
“My headaches got so bad I would hold my head and scream in pain. When we went for the follow-up appointment, my pediatrician ordered an emergency MRI of my brain. The scan showed a tumor about the size of an avocado seed in my brain, and it was growing into my brain stem,” Maddie says.
The Barbers’ world changed in an instant.
Severe headaches and a loss of coordination and balance spurred Maddie's doctor to order an emergency MRI.
Unexpected Change of Plans
The hospital admitted Maddie that night for emergency surgery the next morning to place a shunt into her skull so the fluid build-up could drain. The next day, doctors performed the main surgery to remove the tumor.
“Because of its growth into my spinal cord, they were not able to remove it all,” Maddie says. “My parents immediately started looking at options for treatment. When my mom talked to the staff at St. Jude, she knew it was the place we needed to be.”
In a shocking turn of events, Maddie was rushed into emergency surgery after doctors discovered a tumor, later diagnosed as Medulloblastoma.
Two days after being released from the hospital in San Antonio, Maddie and her mother, Tally, moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis for cancer treatments where her tumor was later diagnosed as Medulloblastoma. Maddie explains this is a malignant tumor that starts in the lower back part of the brain – the cerebellum – and impacts muscle coordination, balance and movement.
Meanwhile her dad, Travis, stayed at home to work and care for her little brother, Ryan.
“It was really hard being away from my family, our dogs and my friends,” she says. “Fortunately, my dad made frequent trips to Memphis to visit me so my mom could go home to spend time with my brother. But I really missed being together as a family.”
Friends from her school posted silly videos to try to make Maddie smile over 700 miles away in Memphis. Her elementary school principal and music teacher even got in on the fun, too, Maddie adds.
“Those videos and the care packages which arrived almost daily with notes of encouragement brought me a lot of happiness,” she says.
Shortly after arriving in Memphis, additional scans found two more small tumors on her frontal lobe, and she endured another surgery in Memphis to biopsy those places.
Chemo treatments were rough, but Maddie is grateful for the letters and encouragement she received from her community.
“Over the next month and half, I spent about 8 hours a day at the hospital getting radiation treatment, going to appointments and working on schoolwork. After radiation was done, I had a one-month break before chemo started. When I wasn’t inpatient at the hospital receiving chemo, my days were still packed with appointments and school,” Maddie says.
This was Maddie’s life for the next eight months. She returned home the second week of March in 2018 cancer-free.
Show Pig Therapy
Later that year, Maddie, an eighth-grader at the time, began showing pigs her family purchased from Texas swine breeders. Her ag teacher, Cheyanne Waltman, helped her get started and continues to come out to look at her pigs and provide advice throughout the year.
“I discovered I really like showing pigs because I get to spend a lot of time with my brother, my mom and my dad. We work together to take care of the pigs and travel to shows,” she says.
Showing pigs became Maddie's passion after her fight with cancer. Photo by Devin Sisk Photography.
With both of her parents working and the kids in school, Tally says that raising and showing pigs is a hobby that brings their family together.
They typically purchase pigs born in July and August to show at various jackpots, the county and district shows, and major shows including the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
But Maddie says her favorite show is the Kendall County Junior Livestock Show, her county show. The show takes place over 5 days with a different species being shown each day. In 2022, she exhibited two barrows – a Spot and a Yorkshire.
“The Spot didn’t place well, but the York placed second in his class,” says Maddie, now a 17-year-old junior at Boerne-Champion High School.
The livestock auction and dinner take place on the last day of the county show. She says it’s a bit different from some auctions because the buyers don’t leave with the animal at the end.
“Because buying and raising a project animal is so expensive, buyers at our show work together to raise money for each project animal, but the kids get to keep the animals so they can continue showing them. Typically, the money raised at the auction helps the kids fund their next project animal,” Maddie says.
Maddie is a proud member of Boerne Champion FFA.
Since the 2021 livestock auction, Maddie had been thinking about donating the proceeds of her auction premiums to St. Jude, but she didn’t talk to her dad about it until the day before the auction. He completely supported her, she says.
Although she admits she’s uncomfortable talking about her experience with cancer, she knew by sharing her story, she could raise money to help other kids going through this tough time in their life. So, on the day of the auction, she wrote a letter for the auctioneer to read to the buyers.
“When it was my turn, I handed the auctioneer my letter. I was nervous and my legs were shaking so hard I could barely stand up!” she says. “The auction itself was a blur because of those nerves, but two things stood out: my sixth-grade math teacher sitting on the front row yelling, ‘Go Maddie,’ and looking at my mom when the final bidder pledged $13,000.”
She had no idea how much money had been raised at that point, but she will never forget the happy screams of encouragement, clapping and standing ovation in the barn.
“I held back tears, but it was really hard especially when I saw my mom crying,” Maddie says.
That day, buyers pledged a total of $30,500 toward premiums for Maddie’s pigs.
Maddie and her brother Ryan at the Kendall County Junior Livestock Show.
Why She Gave It All Away
Maddie’s reason for giving all of that money away is selfless and simple. She wants other kids to have the same type of care she had at St. Jude and most importantly, to know they are not alone in the battle.
“When I was diagnosed with the brain tumor, a friend donated 1,000 wristbands to hand out that said ‘No One FIGHTS Alone - Maddie Strong.’ That became our family motto,” Maddie says. “I donated to St. Jude because I was blessed to be a patient there. St. Jude fought cancer with me – I was never alone.
"Our community of Fair Oaks Ranch/Boerne tied blue ribbons (my favorite color) around everything. They displayed Maddie Strong signs in their yards, wore Maddie Strong t-shirts and bracelets, and posted pictures to Facebook so I could see. My community fought cancer with me – and again, I was not alone. I hope this donation helps more kids with cancer get treatment so they can recover and do what they love. I am fighting with them, so they are not fighting alone.”
St. Jude will use the donation to help provide the most advanced (and friendliest) care to kids who are literally fighting for their lives, Maddie explains.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without St. Jude and their use of proton therapy radiation, which is much less invasive than traditional radiation since it targets the tumor and not the entire brain,” she says. “At St. Jude they treat the whole child, not just the tumor. They help the families by providing them with housing in Memphis, food and transportation to and from the hospital.”
Because of where her tumor was located, Maddie experienced some paralysis on the right side of her body (she is now left-handed). In addition to these advanced treatments, she also saw a physical therapist, occupational therapist, nutritionist, psychologist and psychiatrist multiple times a week. Her eyesight and hearing were also closely monitored.
Tally, Maddie’s mother, says she wasn’t surprised that her daughter wanted to donate her winnings because that’s the kind of kid she is.
Maddie turned 13 while she was at St. Jude. She didn’t want any presents, but she did want to make a donation to the animal shelter in Memphis that she liked to visit. Her present was getting to deliver the donations, her mom Tally says.
“That’s what makes her so special – the joy she gets from helping others,” Tally says. “She never asks for stuff for herself but loves to do for others. For her birthdays she’d ask friends to bring donations for a local animal rescue group instead of presents for her. Her present was getting to deliver the donations.”
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