Brendan’s Buddies is pleased to announce that a monetary gift was made to its first recipient, Abigail Graham (age 17). Abigail had no known medical issues when she suffered an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in July 2019 while attending a leadership program at Lehigh University. An AVM is a tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain. The AVM caused Abigail to have a stroke. Her right side was paralyzed. She was in the ICU followed by inpatient rehab for three months. Abigail is an honor student and had participated in many activities including dance, piano, and cello. She went from doing backflips to being unable to walk. Fortunately she is amazingly determined. Today she is back to playing the cello and piano with adaptions. She can walk with a brace, has limited use of her right arm, and has aphasia (speech difficulties). She continues to work hard in all her therapies and has made great progress.

Ironically Abigail was on an inpatient rehab unit at CHOP when our beloved Brendan was in the PICU at CHOP. Abigail’s mom Stacy brought her down to the PICU in her wheelchair to visit Ed and Christine. While all of us who love Brendan and Abigail struggle with grief, we are determined to find our purpose in helping others in Brendan’s name.

Brendan’s Buddies invited Abigail to help us with our mission to help other children and families going through similar situations and she graciously accepted. We look forward to working with Abigail and moving our mission forward.

We are so grateful for all your support.