Evans teen donates instruments to hospital through Make-A-Wish Georgia

EVANS, Ga. (WJBF) – An Evans teen who overcame a serious health issue is now helping others going through the same thing.

Taylor Brown, 15, was just 12 when he was diagnosed with a serious and rare form of anemia.

“Aplastic anemia, which is bone marrow failure where my white blood cells have started attacking my bone marrow,” Taylor said. “It was obviously very scary, I had killed over eight-five percent of my bone marrow cells by then.”

Fortunately, there was a solution.

“My younger sister is a one hundred percent bone marrow cell match, so she was able to give me my life-saving transplant,” Taylor said.

Before the transplant, Taylor used music to cope during her time at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

“The music therapist would come in a few times a week with whatever instrument you wanted, whether it was an acoustic bass or a guitar, which is what I chose, and you would pick a song and they would help you learn it,” she declared. said.

She now plans to use her wish through Make-A-Wish Georgia to donate instruments to the hospital's music therapy program.

“It was a very impactful program for me and it really helped me cope and really helped me get through that time in the transplant department,” Taylor said. “So I just hope that all these other kids who inevitably have to go through what I went through can have a better opportunity to come out of this.”

“For her to do her Make-A-Wish to give back, I think that’s pretty impressive,” said Jeff Brown, Taylor’s father. “It doesn't shock anyone else who goes on trips or anything like that, but for a fifteen-year-old… At fifteen, I probably would have taken a trip or done something different. So it’s definitely a proud moment for parents.

The hospital's music and art therapy programs rely on donations.

“It would be great to raise awareness in this population and allow people to continue donating blood,” Jeff Brown said.

The new Children's Healthcare of Atlanta hospital will open in September, and Taylor hopes to donate all the instruments by November.