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Dear Friends,
Brooke should be 17 this year. That sentence still stops me — especially now, as our world fills with the milestones she should be reaching. This is the year of learner’s permits and car keys, of first solo drives and proud, nervous parents. It is the year of graduations, of caps and gowns, of futures opening up.
Brooke should be right there — rolling her eyes, insisting she’s ready, certain she already knows how everything works. She was extraordinary. Brilliant and confident. Loving and hilarious. She could be intensely serious, then completely silly moments later.
She was beautiful, like her sister Bryn. She was determined, like her brother Seamus. And, although she was younger than Ashton, she was his equal in every way — his best friend, his twin in spirit, and very much “the boss.” He adored her strength. We all did.
Grief doesn’t move in straight lines. Some days it’s quiet; other days it rushes in when we least expect it — at a graduation announcement, in a parking lot full of student drivers, in moments that should feel uncomplicated but never quite are.
The Brooke Healey Foundation was created during the most helpless moment of our lives — while Brooke was still sick — because the people who loved her needed to do something meaningful. Something that pushed back against the feeling of complete loss of control.
That urgency never faded.
Instead, it became purpose.
Together, we have helped hundreds of families. We have supported critical research. We have helped move DIPG from a disease once defined by zero hope to one where real breakthroughs are finally happening — including children showing no evidence of disease after treatment.
People often say, “If you can help even one child, it’s worth it.”
We have helped more than one.
And we are not finished.
Brooke would have been an incredible sister to Ashton, Bryn, and Seamus — cheering them on, challenging them, keeping them honest. She would have been learning to drive this year. She would have been preparing to graduate. She would have been dreaming, planning, insisting on what came next.
I am angry she doesn’t get those moments. I am heartbroken that our family has to miss her every single day. And yet, something extraordinary has grown in her absence.
Not instead of her.
Because of her.
As this year comes to a close, I ask you not to take that for granted. Your support is not abstract. It becomes care, research, momentum, and hope — for families standing where we once stood, desperate for something to hold onto.
If you choose to donate, please do so with intention and with heart. Know that what you give carries forward into lives you may never meet, but whose futures are shaped by your generosity.
We could not do this without you. And with you, we will keep going — until no family has to miss these milestones again.
With deep gratitude,
Steve & Stefani
Founders, The Brooke Healey Foundation
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