DETROIT – Tuesday was a celebration of life for a Metro Detroit girl who is known for beating the odds.
Maddy Brewster is 7 years old, and she's a fighter.
"She's been a trooper the whole time," mother Wendy Brewster said. "She's been a feisty one."
Wendy Brewster said her daughter has lived up to those words every step of the way.
"The fact that we found out when she was a week old that she had Down syndrome, we knew that we were on a different journey altogether," Brewster said.
That's just one of the obstacles Maddy had to overcome.
"She's had a very long journey with leukemia," her mother said. "She was born with a temporary version of it."
But she beat that, only to fight it again some years later when the cancer returned.
"She did have leukemia, and it wasn't a relapse, it was acute lymphoblastic leukemia this time, and that was going to be a good two-and-a-half year battle," Brewster said. "The fact that she beat it the first time, I just knew that she could do it again."
She beat cancer again.
"We forgot to ring the bell the first time, so today, we're going to ring it twice," Brewster said.
On Tuesday, her family, friends and even the medical staff showed up to watch her ring the bell.
"With God and my family and friends supporting us and guiding us, we stood strong and we knew that we could do it and we somehow got today," Brewster said.