00:00:00:01 - 00:00:17:06
Brandi
It was Thanksgiving of 2014. I’ll never forget this holiday. You see, just earlier that year, I found out that I was now out of remission and diagnosed again for a second time with both aplastic anemia and PNH.

00:00:19:24 - 00:00:46:11
Brandi
When I was in college at the age of 19, I was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. It’s not a normal story that you hear every day of a 19-year-old being diagnosed with a chronic illness. I must say that it gave me a very amazing view on life and really living life to the fullest, and that really, truly means I ended up writing down a list of goals and things that I wanted to do, and one was actually to win Miss University of North Alabama. In 2012,

00:00:46:15 - 00:01:08:05
Brandi
I became Miss University of North Alabama. I was able to use my platform in order to spread awareness about aplastic anemia. There’s a correlation between aplastic anemia and PNH. I remember getting the call from my doctor. She told me, “Not only are you diagnosed with aplastic anemia, but you’ve been diagnosed with PNH.” Getting that diagnosis was very hard for me.

00:01:08:06 - 00:01:28:23
Brandi
I thought, OK, I know how to tackle aplastic anemia. We’ve done all the research. You know, we found amazing doctors. How am I going to tackle this second diagnosis? My conversations that I had for my doctor regarding PNH started around trying to figure out what the future looked like for me. Of course, I want to have kids in the future.

00:01:29:00 - 00:01:53:17
Brandi
What did that look like for me? I always stress to people that are just starting out with PNH, do the research. If you don’t feel comfortable doing the research for yourself, have somebody else do the research for you. I am very big on advocating for yourself, whether that means getting a second opinion, changing doctors if you need to, in order to make sure that you’re getting the best treatment for you.

00:01:54:06 - 00:02:00:11
Brandi
Your journey does not stop here, and you have an amazing life to live.