After going through a challenging health condition, junior Kylie Bell was given an opportunity to give back to the hospital that saved her life.

Every year since 2004 Doernbecher Children’s Hospital caretakers have nominated one of their patients to participate in designing their own Nike Freestyle shoes. One hundred percent of the profits from the shoes go back to the hospital. Six patients are selected each year.

“Kylie was nominated by her surgeon and nurses at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital to design a Freestyle shoe. They unanimously agreed that she is a fantastic representation of the neurosurgery department,” Allie Reynolds, Development Associate of the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation, said.

Bell was diagnosed with two different kinds of brain tumors in the summer of 2009. One was a Dysembryoplastic Neuroepithial Tumor (DNET), and the other Ganglioglioma. She went through brain surgery to have them removed. It was a tough time for her and her family.

“There are times when we are going through life and forget for a minute that there was a brain surgery, then all of a sudden it hits us,” Bell’s mother Julie Martineau said.

Being able to design the shoe was a light in the darkness of Bell’s difficult time with brain surgery.

“It caused me to fall behind in school and barely pass two of my classes, and I got really depressed which I am just now starting to overcome. Designing the shoe was really the high point of my whole brain surgery experience,” Bell said.

The process, in theory, is actually quite simple.

“Each Freestyle designer is given a blank template of their shoe and asked to draw as many different designs as they wish. The drawings are then sent to their Nike design teams to look over. The six Freestyle designers then visit the Nike campus and spend an afternoon in the materials library picking out colors and patterns for their shoes,” Reynolds said.

However, coming up with the perfect design was a little challenging.

“At first it was kind of hard, and I came up with a design, but I wasn’t completely happy with it,” Bell said, “so I came up with a whole new design and it was way better than the first one.”

Martineau even noticed the difference in the designs and how they reflected Bell’s personality.

“The first one was just not right, and I asked her if she would wear the shoe, and she told me she wouldn’t. So, we started over with the designers and in the last minute ended up designing the perfect shoe,” Martineau said. “The success part of this is that when I look at the shoe that she designed, I see Kylie all over it.  From my perspective it’s so her!”

Although it was cool to be famous through having her shoes being worn all over the US, Bell’s intentions were to help raise money for the hospital. Besides giving Bell and her family the opportunity to make light of a tough situation, the funds from the shoe sales raised money for the hospital that was so supportive of them.

“I guess I just wanted to do it to give back to the hospital that most likely saved my life,” Bell said.