BRANDON, Fla. (WFLA) ꟷ Laura Bray of Brandon is one of four local finalists in the 2024 NEXSTAR Media Group, Inc./News Channel 8 Remarkable Women Remarkable Women contest.
Every day, from her small office, Laura Bray is busy changing lives. She is a key player in helping to heal people who are extremely ill, many facing death, dozens and sometimes hundreds at a time.
Laura tracks down life-saving drugs in short supply for people who desperately need them.
Her mission is called “Angels for Change,” and it began with a single patient—her precocious 9-year-old daughter Abby—who was dealt a devastating diagnosis Thanksgiving weekend of 2018.
“It was a phone call,” recalls Laura. “And our pediatrician said there are blasts in Abby’s blood, there is a bed waiting for her at St. Joe’s oncology unit. Pack a bag, plan to stay. Get there now.”
Words no parent wants to hear.
Abby had leukemia. Yet there was hope. Her doctors said this type of leukemia was treatable, and even curable.
“It would depend on this very long, arduous protocol that would be more than two years, maybe three,” explains Laura, ”but at the end of it was very likely that she was going to not just be ok, but go on to live a life we’ve always dreamed for her.”
Soon, the family’s hopes were challenged. Treatment went very well for the first few months, until, says Laura, doctors delivered some difficult news.
“We were told you are not going to get this medicine today. It’s on shortage.”
The news did not escape Abby.
“You know, she caught it right away. She’s smart, quick, witty, and fierce, you know she doesn’t let things go, and she just said, ‘What do you mean?’”
Laura promised her daughter she would find her life-saving medicine.
“Luckily, I was a business professor,” explains Laura. “I did have knowledge about supply chain, global supply chains, no medical knowledge or no pharmaceutical knowledge, but I know how business works, I know how business speaks, I know how stakeholders work, and how supply chains work.”
Laura was able to help Abby quickly, but she didn’t stop there. She wanted to help others in her position.
“I knew there were other families hearing those same words. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I asked myself, ‘Is this my purpose? Is this what I was made for?’”
That’s when “Angels for Change”—Laura’s volunteer mission to end drug shortages—was born.
Almost immediately, patients and even hospitals began calling Angels for Change for help.
Laura says now, the challenge is moving the mission to end drug shortages forward.
She’s even taken the issue to Washington, speaking before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Laura says Abby is doing well and looking forward to celebrating five years cancer-free.
Yet, in the meantime, she says, more than 300 drugs are still considered in shortage.
