Bring the Leland Family Home

To know Brandi is to be inspired.  A daughter of loving parents, Charlie and Dreamal Worthen, and baby sister to two brothers, Brandi, 39, has overcome significant adversity.  She began parenthood as a young, single mother to a deaf son named Christian.  Brandi soon reconnected with her childhood sweetheart, Stephen, and together they had five more children:  Bryce, Caleb, Anna, and a twin caboose, Josiah and Lilly.  Despite multiple special needs, the children are now ages 21 to 7 and are thriving under Brandi and Stephen’s loving care.

As natives, Brandi and Stephen were raising their family in Tallahassee to be close to grandparents and relatives until they needed to move to Thomasville, GA, in order for Christian to have better educational opportunities at the Georgia School for the Deaf.  Stephen has continued to work in Tallahassee and the family planned to move back to Tallahassee as soon as Christian graduated.

In October 2016, Brandi was a busy wife, homeschooling mother, thoughtful caregiver to her special needs clients and disabled family members, and a friend to many.  All of this changed when Brandi was diagnosed with breast cancer at age thirty-seven.  She went from being a caregiver to needing care.  With the goal of continuing to care for her family, Brandi battled her way through four AC chemo treatments, four Taxol treatments, thirty-two radiation treatments, and a mastectomy.  Brandi courageously fought the cancer and was expected to make a full recovery. 

Unfortunately, this year, Brandi had a massive detour.  In March, after experiencing excruciating back pain, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer.  Less than a year from her last radiation treatment, Brandi is now receiving chemo treatments every two out of three weeks in Atlanta at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. 

Her breast cancer has spread to several places on her spine, ribs, and potentially, her lungs.  It has caused several of her vertebrae to collapse and has crushed her spine in multiple places.  Despite multiple surgeries and a patient resilience from Brandi, the pain is relentless and has caused extremely limited mobility, countless ER visits, and weekly or biweekly hospital stays. 

In the middle of all of this adversity, the Leland family was thrilled to celebrate Christian’s graduation from high school, which allows the family to be able to move back to Tallahassee to be closer to help and love from family and friends and also would significantly decrease Stephen’s commute to work at his business, Proficient Lawn (https://m.facebook.com/proficientlawn/).

Thus, we have arranged this fundraiser to bring this special family home to Tallahassee.  Additionally, this fundraiser will help with the family’s skyrocketing costs associated with traveling to and from Atlanta, co-pays for medication, tuition for Christian to attend a college for the deaf in Texas, bills, etc.  Every little bit will help the Leland family survive in this most difficult time.

To learn more about Brandi's story and watch a video please follow the link below:

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/wellness/2017/10/03/family-teams-up-fight-enemy-breast-cancer/726568001/

Thank you all so much for your contributions and please help bring the Leland family home.