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Giving Back

Misty Brough brings a special gift to the children and families she helps at the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati, Ohio: she’s been there herself.

As the evening manager at the House, Misty is often sought out by guests who need to talk. Recently a teenager going through cancer treatment cried when she shared her feelings about being bald. Misty pulled a photo out of her pocket. “This is me when I was about your age,” she told the girl. “I was bald too, and my brother always told me, ‘People love you for who you are, not for your hair.’” Misty is proud of that photo. The baldness was just one of the battle scars she’d earned the hard way, and she uses them as a positive force in her life.

When she was a freshman in college, Misty had a stroke. Her terrified parents arrived in Salt Lake City to find their daughter unresponsive and the doctors bewildered. Misty endured tests and treatments, surgeries, seizures and more strokes. She was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease and began intense chemotherapy. Doctors told Misty’s parents that she probably wouldn’t live. Later they were more optimistic: she might live, but she wouldn’t regain much function.

Those first days in the hospital, Misty recalls her parents being utterly depleted. They had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. “They were running on empty,” she says. “Then they went to stay at the Ronald McDonald House. All their needs were taken care of, and they were able to concentrate on just giving me love and attention. For me, it was literally a life saver.”

Because of the Ronald McDonald House, Misty’s parents were with her through the entire three months of tests and treatments. And although she faced more chemotherapy, had no hair and could barely walk, Misty was back at college less than a year later.

When she graduated, her parents asked her about her goals. Misty said she saw herself with a big dog, an old truck and a job at a charity. Well, they told her, Ronald McDonald House Charities has given a lot to our family. You should give back to them. Remember, make your life count, and make it something you love.

Misty has embraced that philosophy.

 

 

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