TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa Bay mother is working to end drug and medication shortages nationwide.
Not being able to get your hands on your medication is a scary problem to run into, and it's actually a common issue for cancer patients.
“No patient should hear, 'We don’t have the drug to save you, go home.' Like, my child had to contemplate what that meant,” Laura Bray said.
A 9-year-old fighting cancer is hard enough, but trying to understand why you can’t take the medicine that is supposed to save you makes things harder.
RELATED: Tampa mom fights to find life-saving prescription drugs in short supply
“She knew she needed this drug to survive. She asked me, 'What does this mean now? I thought I needed this. Does this mean I die?'” Bray said.
Driven by motherly instinct along with her business background, Bray took matters into her own hands. She navigated the pharmaceutical supply chain and actually got her daughter the lifesaving medication she needed.
“While I was extremely happy about that victory, it felt a little bit hollow because I didn’t help everyone,” Bray said.
She knew firsthand the fear that comes with a drug shortage, so she founded Angels for Change to help other patients get access to the medicine they need.
"That time I wasn't just Abby's mom fighting for her, I was Laura Bray, Chief Changemaker at Angels for Change, and I got to help many hospitals and many patients," Bray said.
Now she is in constant communication with the FDA, hospitals and pharmacies across the country. She tracks where medications are and where demand is high.
Bray helps patients all over the world get access to the medicine they need. She said cancer patients, in particular, are prone to drug shortages.
I spoke to another Tampa mother whose son Lucas dealt with the same issues.
"He was diagnosed with high-risk all leukemia at the age of 13. It just kind of came out of nowhere. It started with back pain," Monique Va said.
Lucas was putting up a fight, but that all came crashing down when he, too, could not get the medicine he needed.
“Devastating. Imagine your child going through a life-threatening disease, and all you want is for them to be cured, and all of a sudden, you find out that the chemo that he needs he can't get,” Va said.
That's when she connected with Bray at Angels for Change. The organization helped advocate for Lucas.
Today, both Abby and Lucas are cancer-free.
