MOBILE, Ala. — An 11-year-old Mobile girl who is fighting a rare form of brain cancer has thrown down a sour challenge to one of the most famous figures in Alabama sports.
Aubreigh Nicholas, whose family documents her fight on the Aubreigh’s Army Facebook page, posted a video challenging Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban to take part in the Lemon Face Challenge on her behalf.
What the challenge is
The Lemon Face Challenge works much like other viral awareness campaigns: participants bite into a sour lemon, film their puckered reaction, and challenge friends — or in this case a championship football coach — to do the same while donating to childhood cancer research. The campaign spread across Alabama and beyond as families touched by pediatric brain cancer shared videos of politicians, athletes and local celebrities grimacing through the fruit.
Nicholas marked her 11th birthday with her mother the same week she posted the challenge, according to the family’s page, which has followed her treatment and rallied community support across the Mobile area since her diagnosis.
The Mobile-area community has embraced Aubreigh’s Army with fundraisers and public shows of support, and her Saban challenge gave the cause one of its highest-profile potential participants yet.