As Phyllis Wilkins continues her battle with brain tumors, Wilkins two friends Sarah Young of Clanton and Virginia Springer of Thorsby busily create ways to support their friend.

Both Young and Springer have planned a yard sale June 22 from 7 a.m. until everything sells at First United Methodist Church in Clanton.

“We have a ton of stuff that people have donated and are currently filling up four different garages with things we plan to sell,” Young said. “We are really excited and hope everyone will come out on Saturday.”

Young said they will be able to accept all major credit cards and PayPal accounts at the sale on Saturday.

Young and Springer previously held a Mother’s Day Plant Sale for Wilkins on May 11 at Rockin Bobbin Alterations in Clanton.

The two sold plants ranging from hanging baskets, herbs, petunias, geraniums, begonias to assorted plants with all of the proceeds going to benefit Wilkins (whose nickname is Fefe).

Young and Springer organized the plant sale after learning that Wilkins, formerly of Thorsby, would be traveling to Vanderbilt Skull Base Center in Nashville, Tenn. on May 21 to meet with doctors who might be able to treat the benign tumors in Wilkins’ brain.

Now, after traveling to Vanderbilt once, Wilkins learned from her doctors that she would never be able to go back to work and Young and Springer stepped up to help Wilkins again by planning the yard sale.

“[Fefe] has worked all of her life, since she was 16,” Young said. “It has been very hard for her to hear that she will not be able to return back to work and we came up with the idea for a yard sale to generate extra funds for her.”

Young said both she and Springer have learned so much throughout the process of helping their friend fight the tumors and look forward to planning different things throughout the community to support Wilkins.

Donations are still being accepted for the yard sale and both Young and Springer along with other volunteers will be at the church on Friday after 2 p.m. pricing things for the sale.

“We only hope we will get everything priced before 7 a.m. on Saturday,” Young said. “If anyone has anything they want to sell they can bring it over on Friday.”

Wilkins has Intercranial Hypertension and the tumors inside Wilkins’ brain cause too much fluid to build up around the brain resulting in constant headaches and the inability to work.

Her fight with the tumors started in November 1999 when she was diagnosed with brain tumors.

Wilkins named the tumors “Lucy” and “Ethel” due to her love of the television show “I Love Lucy.”

Ethel was removed in 2007, but a new tumor named “Fred” arrived in 2011 along with “Little Ricky” which was a brain aneurysm. Wilkins’ also had a fight with breast cancer in 2001 resulting in a double mastectomy in 2008 where she is now a breast cancer survivor.

“Discouragement comes a lot and we try to encourage her the best we can,” Young said. “[Fefe] has a wonderful sense of humor which is shown through her naming all of her tumors characters from the ‘I Love Lucy’ show and we try to remind her of the positive things as she continues her fight with the tumors.”

Wilkins, 54, originally worked at Shelby Baptist Hospital where she worked in medical billing for operating rooms and has three children and 10 grandchildren that she calls, “grandloves.”

Young said all of the money raised at the yard sale on Saturday will go toward helping Wilkins travel back and forth to Vanderbilt where she will have her next visit in a few months as well as daily expenses.

If anyone wants to donate items to the yard sale, contact Springer at (205) 217-2228 or Young at (205) 317-5114.

For more information about Fefe’s fight, visit fefesfight.com or email fefesfight@gmail.com.