Kylie Cantrell is like many 11–year–olds... she loves the outdoors... plays basketball and competes in gymnastics.

But one day in January that all changed.

Kids helping kids... that's the story of the St. Jude gymnastics meet.

This story starts right before that...as Lisa Cantrell's daughter Kylie got one more practice in before the meet.

Kylie's mom Lisa Cantrell said, "She'd had a really good practice and I was talking to her coaches about it."

11–year–old Kylie Cantrell was the picture of health until that January day.

At the end of practice she walked over to me and kind of collapsed.

The Carbon Cliff girl had suffered a stroke.

Within hours she was flown to the Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria.

Kylie's dad Todd Cantrell said, "You don't realize how things can change so fast in your life."

Dr. David Wang from the Illinois Neurological Institute told Kylie's parents that the inner layer of a blood vessel in their little girl's brain had torn.

Surgery wasn't an option.

Dr. David Wang said, "This kind of condition because the vessel is long, it's the inner layer kind of pealed away, and there's no way you can do surgery... it's extending into the head. So, imagine how big of a wound..."

Dr. Wang says operating was too risky... it could've caused more clotting.

But he was confident treating her with a blood thinner and physical therapy that she would regain almost complete movement in her right side.

Kylie's dad Todd said, "He gave us hope and said that she would get better."

And he was right!

Less than two months later, this shy 11–year–old is back to her old self.

He can offer her parents proof that she's getting better by showing them 3–D images of her brain.

Kylie's mom Lisa said, "The other day I caught her doing a back bend."

They may never know why this happened... stroke caused by a tear in a blood vessel most often strikes after some type of physical trauma.

Kylie hadn't gotten hurt at practice the day she collapsed.

But her risk for another clot is greater now.

Kylie's tumbling days are likely behind her.

And that's fine with mom and dad... and her brothers, too.

The Cantrell's are just happy to have Kylie healthy and home.