Photo submitted to Times Observer Robbie Hadley.

For Robbie Hadley, brotherly love knows no bounds.

Last year, the 13-year-old Panama, N.Y., resident went above and beyond in his desire to show how much he cares for his baby brother Timothy, who is very ill, by donating more than 50,000 pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester.

The story behind this donation begins with Timothy’s birth on April 26 to Kevin and Jennifer Hadley, the former of whom is pastor of Niobe Baptist Church in Panama. At birth, Timothy was diagnosed with atrioventricular septal defects in the form of two holes in his heart, in addition to Down’s Syndrome.

The Hadleys sought a surgical option to alleviate Timothy’s symptoms associated with his AVSD, and ultimately planned to have the surgery performed on Nov. 3. However, according to Kevin Hadley, Timothy took a turn for the worse in September, and plans had to be altered.

“By the middle of September, it was apparent that Timmy wasn’t doing very well and we called the cardiologist on Sept. 26 to ask him what we needed to do,” he said. “After asking us about Timmy, he told us that he wanted us to take Timmy to the cardiology center at Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester to have him evaluated.

“We drove up that day, leaving our other eight children at home and, within an hour of arriving, Timmy was admitted to the Pediatric ICU and Pediatric Cardiac Care Center with severe heart failure. Jennifer and Timmy would end up staying the next two months at the hospital.”

He said the family was informed that the Ronald McDonald House had a room for them one floor above the Pediatric ICU, and that Jennifer stayed with Timothy at the house for the next several weeks leading up to Timothy’s scheduled Nov. 3 surgery. During one of his visits with his other children, Kevin said Robbie spotted the pop tab collection bin and subsequently decided he would collect 500 pop tabs to donate to the Ronald McDonald House by Thanksgiving.

This is where Mike and Becky Frederickson come in.

As members of the Niobe Baptist Church congregation, the Fredericksons were aware of Timothy’s medical issues and Robbie’s attempts to collect pop tabs. Becky Frederickson said they wanted to do their part to help Robbie with his collection campaign.

“(Robbie) told the congregation what he was trying to do, and Mike immediately went and told his co-workers at Storer’s Container Service in Stockton,” she said. “His boss’s wife gave us a pop bottle’s worth of tabs, and one of the guys there, Bob Burke, and his wife, Charlene, brought in an entire bag of pop tabs. It was enough to fill a banana box.”

Becky said Robbie was able to bring in more than 50,000 pop tabs due primarily to the 49,100 tabs he received from the Burkes.

“We brought almost 20 pounds worth of pop tabs in to church with us and Robbie was thrilled,” she said.

Unfortunately, when Nov. 3 finally arrived, the Hadleys were informed that surgery was no longer an option for Timothy.

“(The surgeon) said the chances of success on anything they could do won’t warrant the pain and discomfort of the surgery,” Kevin Hadley said. “He wouldn’t put his child through it in that case, so he would not operate on Timmy. He told us that Timmy probably has just months to live without a surgical option available. We knew immediately that we wanted Timmy to come home and be cared for there.”

And so Timothy has returned home to be with his family, who continually pray for a miracle and healing for his heart.

In addition to Timothy and Robbie, the other Hadley children include: Austin, 16; Larissa, 15; Jeremiah, 11; Benjamin, 9; Abigail, 7; Jonathan, 5; and Joseph, 3.

The Hadleys regularly provide updates on Timothy’s condition and progress via a blog that can be found on the Niobe Baptist Church website at niobebaptist.org.