RaeAnne Toennies, a Germantown, Illinois, girl used to love basketball.
She spent whole days training and participating in basketball games, and her mom couldn’t be prouder of her.
But then, one day, she had a terrible headache and went to bed.
Her mom didn’t think much of it, until Rae called her to go check in on her because she couldn’t feel her legs.
“Our two-hour trip that we thought would be to a local ER turned out to be 8 months and a whole new normal for life,” Nikki Toennies told Fox6 at the time.
The doctors that examined the teenager found out that she had contracted a bacterial blood infection, which had started causing the girl major problems.
Rae spent months in the ICU, and she ended up having both legs amputated and losing fingers from her hands.
Her mother admitted that while her daughter was in the ICU, where she could hardly move at all, she feared she was going to lose her.
Months later, Rae was finally as healthy as she could be after the horrible infection, but was also left quadriplegic since the infection had also affected her spine.
In the months that followed her recovery, she started learning how to walk again and how to hold things in her hands.
“I want to be able to run and play with my friends, I want to be able to hold things by myself, because right now mom has to brush my teeth for me and sitting down at the end of the lunch table where everybody can see me getting fed, is not fun,” she said.
Indeed, after lots of physiotherapies, her condition has improved but she has still a way to go.
But she’s never stopped being an amazing, positive person, who enjoys life “like she lives twice”, as she says.
One day, the KMOV Surprise Squad had a life-changing surprise for her.
You see, they decided to crash a pep rally with unbelievable surprises for this inspirational young fighter.
First of all, the Harlem Globetrotters announced that the next time they were in town, they’d invite Rae to be their honorary coach!
The teen was already overwhelmed by this surprise, but so much more was coming.
Frank Padak, President and CEO of Scott Credit Union, presented Rae and her family with a check.
The girl was given $5,000 to buy equipment and anything she needed to make her everyday life easier.
Next up, Frank Squeo, the founder of Baking Memories 4 Kids, gifted Rae and her family paid vacation to all the theme parks in Orlando, Florida.
Rae was already wowed, but then came the last and best gift.
A visit from her favorite country music artist, Drew Baldridge!
The singer sang a song that, as he shared, took a whole new meaning when he thought of Rae.
Rae couldn’t believe how generous everyone was to her and she admitted “it was huge”.
What a lovely act of generosity on the part of everyone involved.
Watch the surprise they all had for Rae in the video below!
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Source: YouTube – KMOV St. Louis, KMOV4, Instagram
