A Houston teen is helping his mother with medical bills after she suffered a serious health scare.
He also has dreams of owning his food truck.
For the last few years, Elijah Cossio has been supporting his mother Tina Hernandez with her hospital bills by selling daily baked goods after school, ABC affiliate KTRK reported.
The 14-year-old daily wake up at 5 a.m. before school to bake desserts. When his classes have ended, he sells his homemade goods to classmates, parents, and community members, according to the outlet.
Hernandez, a mother of three who was near to death after a bacterial infection in 2017, is proud of her son.
“It feels wonderful because I raised him that way so I’m very proud of him,” she tells PEOPLE.
Baking is his hobby but Elijah never thought that he would do it to support his mother and siblings. The teen revealed on a GoFundMe page set up by his mother on his behalf.
“I started baking as just a hobby and to learn how to make my own money,” Elijah wrote on the page. “My mom has always taught me to work for what I want because nothing is handed to you for free.”
“Not knowing this knowledge was being given to me to prepare me for what there was to come,” he added.
His life was flipped upside down in June 2017 when Hernandez contracted a “horrific” bacterial infection from the gym. She was hospitalized for three months.
“It spiraled out from there,” she tells PEOPLE. “I had to undergo five surgeries and three blood transfusions and I died for 14 minutes after the first surgery… I don’t remember those three months of my life.”
During that tough time, Elijah said he had no idea what was written in his mother’s future, recalling on the GoFundMe, “I did not know if that would be the last time I would see her.”
After recovering from the several procedures, Hernandez says she needed extensive therapy and had to “relearn everything,” including “walking and simple tasks, like using the restroom.”
His mother was in the hospital and unable to work, Elijah said on the GoFundMe he “knew he had to step up to help support her.”
With his baking skills, he decided to earn some good money by selling homemade treats every day after school.
“I remembered how much my mom taught me with baking so I decided to step up,” Elijah explained on the GoFundMe. “I started grinding and baking daily so that I can go store to store to sell and raise money.”
On the new fundraiser, which launched on Tuesday, Elijah has already surpassed his $100 goal, reaching over $6,100 in donations.
“It first started as a weekend thing, but after the accident, it turned into an everyday thing,” Hernandez explains to PEOPLE. “I’ve always pushed my kids [and told them] there’s nothing you can’t do… I said, ‘All you gotta do is find something you’re good at and try it!’”
Added Elijah on the GoFundMe: “Now that my mom is doing better I found a passion. I want to continue to help out as well as save money to better myself.”
Hernandez also tells PEOPLE that her son wishes to own his cupcake truck one day.
“There’s more to life than just sitting and playing games,” he explained to KTRK. “I was raised to go get and I went and got it.”
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