A small Georgia community is rallying behind a young boy in need of an expensive brain surgery not covered by his family’s insurance.

Tyler Lillard has a form of epilepsy caused by a brain tumor on his optic nerve. According to his mother, Tina Lillard, the boy suffers from as many as 50 seizures a day.

“It’s difficult because you don’t know when they’re going to come, you don’t know how severe they’ll be, you don’t know how long they’ll last,” said Tina Lillard.

Tyler is getting ready to have surgery at the Mayo Clinic, but his $250,000 surgery has been denied by his insurance company.

On Wednesday his community chipped in by coming out to a fundraiser to help pay for the surgery.

For Tyler, the highlight of the fundraiser was getting the opportunity to meet Atlanta Falcons player Jason Snelling, who also suffers from epilepsy.

“I’ve been dealing with epilepsy since I was 13 years old. There’s good days and bad days, but fortunately for me, I was able to persevere through epilepsy,” Snelling said. “It’s still an everyday battle.”

The family says that they’re encouraged by all the support they’re receiving from the community.

“The support, the prayers – everything has just been, it’s overwhelming but in a good way,” said Tina Lillard.

Tyler says once he gets surgery, everything will be back to normal.

“If they take my brain tumor out, I’ll be perfect. I’ll be fine,” said Tyler.