NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- He may have looked like a performer thanks to his dancing skills displayed on TikTok, but 12-year-old Brennen Goody was all about sports. "He aspired to be a professional soccer player or football player; he really liked Mahomes," said his mother, Jackie Goody.  She described her eldest child as sweet, high energy, fun, and very empathetic. "Anytime we drove by a homeless guy he'd want us to give him money, get him food, or let him come stay at our house," she continued. KCPD searching for suspect after man stabbed, killed in Northland home A bug bite landed him in the hospital a few years back. Doctors thought the bruising looked odd and referred him to hematology. When specialists there couldn't figure it out, they sent the family to genetics. Testing there revealed a gene mutation and a diagnosis of Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (VEDS). Because it's so rare he wasn't diagnosed until 2021 at the age of 10. The disorder essentially makes one's body fragile and susceptible to injury, making it easy for organs and blood vessels to rupture. That led to a lot of ER visits and stitches to his head. “[His skin] kind of tore like tissue paper almost. [The skin] under his eyes would get dark because that skin there is already pretty thin," his mother explained. For a kid who loved soccer and football, that made things incredibly difficult. Brennen's parents ultimately stopped him from playing contact sports and got him seen by specialists on a regular basis at Children's Mery. Everything seemed to be going okay until a week after Brennen turned 12. He was home sick with strep throat and started complaining of a stomachache. That stomachache, doctors learned, was actually his descending aorta rupturing. "They did everything they could; they worked really hard," said Goody. "There was a team of people flying in and out, bringing blood, trying to repair it, but his vessels were too friable. Every time they'd start to repair it it'd start to tear apart." Missouri sex offenders no longer required to post Halloween warning signs, federal judge rules Brennen died on June 13, 2023, leaving behind two younger siblings, parents, grandparents and a dog. His family is now working to keep his legacy alive. "He was very big on helping people and doing the right thing. I just want to be able to pass that on," added his mother. The family held the first ever "Brennan's vEDS Walk" Saturday morning at Macken Park in North Kansas City from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More than 80 people showed up to raise money for vEDS research. As of Saturday evening, more than $3,000 was raised to go to a doctor at Texas Children's Hospital who's researching VEDS in young people.   Wendy Mahan got emotional when she saw just how many people showed up to walk her grandson. "He just didn't think of himself, so for people to do this for him in his honor is just… My heart was so welled up all the time." She suffers from the same genetic condition that took Brennen's life. The hope is for this fundraising walk to become an annual event and maybe even lead to a cure. "It's a horrible, horrible condition," added Mahan, "and to know it's going to help somebody not lose their child, I just, it's amazing." After all, that's what her grandson would have wanted. People with vEDS typically have translucent skin, large, deep-set eyes, hypermobility and bruising. To learn more about the condition and to get financial help to undergo genetic testing, click here.