Brandi Benson is proof that miracles do happen.
She is not supposed to be alive, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer 15 years ago. Today, Benson is thriving – living her best life.
As a 24-year-old U.S. Army soldier deployed in Iraq, Benson was diagnosed with a large Ewing sarcoma – a rare, aggressive form of soft tissue cancer – and given an eight to 12-month life expectancy with only a 15% chance of survival.
She credits her survival to her mother, who stood by her side and refused to let her give up the fight.
“Basic training had taught me how to fight and how to defend my country – but this was a different kind of battle,” Benson said. “It crept up on me like a stealth enemy in the night. I was not ready for such an attack from within.”
Credit: spe
Credit: spe
With her cancer in remission, Benson, 39, is married and living in McDonough. She has devoted her life to advocating for cancer patients and survivors, especially those in the military. She wants to raise awareness about rare illnesses like hers, the importance of physical and mental recovery, and the need for a solid support system.
“In the military, you are exposed to so many toxic chemicals,” said Benson. “That causes a lot of issues, including cancer.”
Shortly after Benson was deployed to Iraq in 2009, she experienced extreme fatigue.
“I thought it was because I was away from my family, I was a brand-new soldier, young and kind of depressed,” she said.
Despite being tired, Benson said she was in the best shape of her life and worked out constantly while off duty. During a workout, she noticed a lump on her upper left leg.
Thinking it was nothing, Benson waited to get it checked out. But when the lump didn’t disappear, she asked others on the base to look at it. She was sent to Baghdad for a CAT scan and then to Germany for an MRI.
Following surgery at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Benson was told she had a fast-growing cancer.
Benson said the doctors were unsure how to treat it and gave dire scenarios of how it would spread. It was hard for her to believe she had anything to live for.
Her mother, Tippi Carrillo, was not going to accept that prognosis. Carrillo left her home in Texas with a young grandson in tow and stayed with her daughter throughout every surgery and treatment.
Benson said that her mother took on the superhero role. She put a sign on the hospital door that kept all naysayers out and refused to let her daughter stay depressed.
“She gave me a pep talk: ‘Brandi, I know the doctors don’t believe that you’re going to make it. I know, statically, it’s stacked against us. But I believe in you, and you can’t give up on yourself.
“There are miracles every single day. Why can’t you be one of them?’”
Benson said after that, she became more hopeful, and her body began responding to the treatments. The two began dreaming of the most outrageous outcomes – that Benson would meet Oprah, tell her story before large audiences, and write a book.
“It made me feel so great, so normal,” Benson said.
Benson was in the hospital for 10 months. She underwent 101 rounds of chemotherapy, 12 leg surgeries, 12 blood transfusions, and endless physical therapies. She had to relearn how to walk.
“Because of (my mother) and her being able to change the lens at which I was looking at cancer, I believe this is why I’m here today,” Benson said. “I’m very aware I didn’t do this alone. It was my mother who helped me.”
Credit: spe
Credit: spe
Through partnerships with Bristol-Myers Squibb, the U.S. Department of Defense, and others, Benson offers strategies and resources that cancer survivors, their loved ones, and anyone struggling can use to overcome challenges. She won the Sarcoma Foundation of America’s Courage Award in 2020.
“I try to coach people in looking at cancer from a different perspective,” she said. “I tell them, this was something in your past, and let’s try to leverage that experience for something better in the future.”
She plays an active role in advocacy, serving as a pre-reviewer for the Department of Defense to represent the consumer perspective in grant and clinical trial reviews for cancer research.
Benson is a mentor for The Young Adult Peer Mentorship Program at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and serves on the Board of Directors of the Sarcoma Alliance and other cancer nonprofits.
She wrote and self-published her memoir, “The Enemy Inside Me,” and is working on a children’s book about sarcoma cancer.
Benson has shared her story in her signature talk, “There Are Miracles Every Day, Why Can’t You Be One?,” for various corporate audiences such as Rolls Royce, Google, Salesforce and Eli Lily, emphasizing the importance of a strong support system, the beauty of vulnerability, how to integrate back into the workplace after an illness and to change the survivorship narrative.
“I’ve really lived the life that we dreamed of in 2009 when I was literally sitting on that bed dying,” Benson said. “And somehow, it all came true.”
MORE ABOUT BRANDI BENSON
To learn more about her coaching cancer survivors and forming a support system: brandilbenson.com.
“The Enemy Within” can be purchased through Amazon.com
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