Brave, Strong Toddler Mom Faces Metastatic Cancer

#KByeCancer: The Sequel, ft. Brooke Clay Taylor

 

In 2019, at 32 years old and 38 weeks pregnant, my cousin Brooke Clay Taylor was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. This form of the disease doesn’t have any of the receptors commonly found in breast cancer, making it difficult to treat. TNBC accounts for only 10-15% of cases of breast cancer and is the worst, most aggressive form of the disease.

 

Brooke gave birth to Elsie James six hours after her diagnosis and immediately launched into treatment planning and a battery of tests. From radiation that kept her quarantined from her newborn to chemo that stole Elsie’s infancy, Brooke and her husband, Damon, a wildlife refuge manager in Eastern Oklahoma, made sacrifices no new parents should have to.

 

 

The tumor was big, but the cancer hadn’t spread. After five months, four chemotherapy drugs, numerous staph infection surgeries, and one ridiculous round of shingles, it was confirmed chemo was successful when doctors found no residual cancer during Brooke’s double mastectomy. She experienced a pathological complete response to chemo!

 

By Elsie’s first birthday, Brooke had completed chemo, a double mastectomy, radiation, and a prophylactic oophorectomy and hysterectomy. Her hair had returned and bordered on something resembling a pixie cut. She crisscrossed Oklahoma and the U.S., introducing Elsie to her family, supporting farmers and ranchers through her agricultural strategic communications business, and showing up on the sidelines to cheer for her friends (if Brooke isn’t with Elsie and Damon, hype girlin’ is where you’ll find her). There was life on the other side of cancer. And Brooke was living it.

 

In the weeks after diagnosis, Brooke learned she carried a mutation on her BRCA1 gene. This difference in her DNA makes her more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers. While Brooke never saw herself as a one-and-done mom, her decision to have a radical hysterectomy meant fewer places for cancer to get a foothold for an act two. The procedure, paired with the double mastectomy she’d already undergone, was an insurance policy. It meant a better shot at staying with Elsie and Damon on this side of Heaven.

 

After losing her own father to cancer when she was 6 years old, Brooke was desperate for one thing: To be here.  “Please, Jesus,” Brooke prayed each day. “Let me raise this baby.”

 

But on March 11, 2022 — four months before Elsie’s third birthday and on the 29th anniversary of her dad’s death — Brooke learned that might not be her story.

 

With a lone enlarged lymph node remnant of a cold and unexplained weight gain, Brooke’s medical team advised a few tests as a precaution. One was a PET scan, which physicians use to see whether someone has cancer in their body.

 

Despite Brooke’s complete response to chemo, despite every all-clear, and despite each 3-month, 6-month, and just-in-case checkup, cancer snuck back in. And this time, it’s everywhere. Her spine, her pelvis, her clavicle, her lungs. This week, an MRI will reveal whether it’s in her brain.

 

To quote Brooke, “It’s bad news bears.”

 

Brooke will give cancer hell, but she’ll also level with you: The odds are not in her favor. To improve those odds by ensuring she gets the best care in the world, the Taylors need your support.

 

While she undergoes treatment, Brooke will not be able to work, and as a business owner, that means shuttering her company — a significant source of income for their family.

 

Yes, the Taylors have health insurance. But it doesn’t cover gas for the 3-hour roundtrips to her care team in Tulsa, potential future treatments, flights and lodging to see specialists, or maintaining childcare for Elsie that is critical for Brooke to undergo treatment and for Damon to continue to work.

 

Health insurance also doesn’t cover making memories.

 

The bucket list items Brooke cares about don’t cost anything: Being here for Elsie’s first heartbreak, her first big life lesson, her first big win. But because the odds are now incredibly long that Brooke will be front row center for so many of those firsts, she’s rewriting the list. From Elsie’s first concert (Garth Brooks, are you reading? Because Oklahoma State’s 2008 Homecoming Queen needs you.) to meeting Mickey Mouse at Disney World, Brooke is determined to make memories living big for Elsie if her ticket is called soon.

 

Your gift to the Taylor family ensures Elsie’s future is bright and that Damon can focus on caring for Brooke.

 

It will alleviate Brooke’s guilt about potentially leaving her family in substantial, crippling debt.

 

It will fill the photo albums with memories showing Elsie just how much her mama loved her, even if she’s too little to remember their sticky summer days sharing snow cones, their early-morning Dolly Parton jam sessions, the feeling of her mama’s hugs.

 

You can help supply peace of mind while Brooke goes back in the ring for round two with cancer, determined to kick its ass.

 

Because Jesus, Brooke needs to raise this baby.

 

Amen.

 

P.S., Duck Cancer. Sales of these shirts and everything else in the Rural Gone Urban shop directly benefit the Taylor family. For the #RealReel and quick updates, follow Brooke on Instagram - @RuralGoneUrban.