AN INCREDIBLY resilient spirit has carried a girl whose entire left side is covered in tumors through some unbelievably difficult times. Brianna Worden, of Upstate New York, was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis (NF) Type One at two months, which mea…
AN INCREDIBLY resilient spirit has carried a girl whose entire left side is covered in tumors through some unbelievably difficult times. Brianna Worden, of Upstate New York, was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis (NF) Type One at two months, which means her entire left side from the neck down is covered in tumors – both inside and out. The 22-year-old, who loves to sing, has undergone 10 procedures in her life already, having to learn to walk again at eight years old and even learning to speak again after a particularly difficult surgery. Brianna told Barcroft TV: “It's just an everyday battle that I face. A lot of my childhood was spent in hospitals, kind of like in movies when you're looking at the child looking out the window looking at everyone else having fun.” Mum, Janna Walter, said: “Brianna's personality is like sunshine. She doesn't let challenges get in her way. I've been told by a variety of different doctors at different times in her life, ‘she'll be lucky if she makes it to age seven’ or ‘she'll be lucky if she makes it to age 15. She's a fighter, she's amazing, and we're really glad she's still with us.” In her teens, Brianna entered beauty pageants, eventually winning Miss Teen New York in 2013. Her NF is most visible on her left arm, where she has had three ‘debulking’ operations to reduce the tumours’ mass. Unfortunately, each time the doctors removed the three pounds of tumour necessary, it has grown back. Now, the skin on her arm has become incredibly thin, making further surgery impossible. She is currently using a clinical trial drug alongside chemotherapy to try to shrink her tumours, while continuing to do advocacy work and fighting to show she is not defined by her condition.
