Diagnosed with brain cancer seven years ago, Lenn Brown refused to let anything get in the way of him and his dream to attend Syracuse University.

After enduring brain surgery, nine rounds of chemotherapy and 30 days of radiation, the undeclared sophomore is in the Whitman School of Management and is a student manager of the Syracuse men’s basketball team.

Brown’s parents met at Syracuse, and many of his other family members attended SU as well. He was raised attending SU basketball games.

“I’ve just grown up as an Orange fan,” Brown said.

But his path to becoming an SU student was not an easy one. At 12 years old, Brown felt an odd sensation in his head during a soccer game when he accidentally tripped and did a somersault.

“It seemed like the sky was on the ground and the ground was on the sky,” Brown said.

He sat down for 10 minutes, and then ran back out onto the field to play.

A month went by and nothing happened. When he played basketball, he felt a similar sensation. He started feeling it more consistently with everyday activities.

“I knew something just wasn’t right,” Brown said.

After Brown’s first visit to a pediatrician, he was sent away diagnosed with a sinus infection. Brown felt relieved that they found what seemed to be an explanation for the weird sensation.

However, it turned out Brown did not have a sinus infection, and he was then sent for a CT scan. Brown could only complete nine out of 10 of the scans, because he could not get his head back in a certain position. He was told that the nine scans they had was sufficient, and soon Brown was told that all of the scans looked clear. The next step was an MRI.

In December 2008, the doctor called Brown saying that he needed to see him.

“I told my mom that I couldn’t because I had a math test that day. I couldn’t skip my math test, but the doctor said, ‘you need to come in,’” Brown said.

Brown skipped his math test and went to the doctor’s office, where the doctor gave him a neurological exam. Brown passed the exam with flying colors, confusing the doctor who figured he would have a problem with it. Then, the doctor sent Brown and his sister out of the room and told his parents, “Your son has a brain tumor.”

Brown explained that the next few moments were a blur. His family drove to see the surgeon where Brown’s parents questioned whether or not they should go find “Dr. God.” The doctor confidently told them, “I’m the one you want to operate on your son.” He performed the procedure on December 26th.

The doctors removed Brown’s tumor completely. Results showed the tumor was cancerous and this triggered the start of Brown’s chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which took about a year and half.

Brown missed the rest of his seventh grade year and basically all of eighth grade due to treatments. He had tutors and he met with them a few times, but he was too sick to do much else.

Brown said his community was very helpful when he was sick. Families would bring meals to his house every night. There were so many boxes that the Brown family actually had to tell people to stop once he got better. Sometimes he would come back from the hospital and find three different meals at his door.

“The surgery was bad, but I came out with a little bandage on my head and it wasn’t a huge deal,” Brown said. “The worst thing is chemotherapy. Basically I don’t have any cancer in my body but they need to give me as much chemotherapy as my body can take to make sure that it doesn’t come back. It’s basically like injecting poison into your body.”

The chemotherapy made Brown very sick. He could not eat anything and he lost 30 pounds. He would throw up two or three times a day. He tried taking many different medications to help his nausea. Nothing worked.

“It just brought my body to the brink of existence. The reason they gave me nine rounds is because I wouldn’t have survived 10,” Brown said.

Despite his illness, he managed to maintain a positive attitude.

“I knew that if I got upset about things all the time, there was no way I was going to get through it. I just needed to stay positive and keep fighting,” Brown said.

Brown kept fighting. He has fully recovered and now at SU, he’s working for his favorite team. His experience gave him a new outlook on life.

“I learned that life is a gift and that every day is a gift,” Brown said. “Certain things in life that were once important are just no longer important.”

If anyone were going through a similar experience, Brown would tell them to stay positive.

“Be as strong as you can and know that there are so many people out there on your side,” Brown said. “Never be afraid to ask for help.”

Published on November 30, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact: moberger@syr.edu