Family Sells T-Shirts To Raise Funds For 9-Year-Old With Chronic Disease

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Meet 9-year-old Braniyah Toote, small in stature, but incredibly brave beyond her years.

Braniyah loves swimming, playing bingo, and being close to home. But her everyday reality is far from ordinary.

Instead of simply enjoying the carefree joys of childhood, Braniyah finds herself in and out of hospitals at any given moment, all because of a chronic illness she continues to battle.

Braniyah Toote – Patient, Myasthenia Gravis
“When I go to the doctor, it makes me feel very sad, um, because of all of the tests that I have to do.”

Myasthenia Gravis is a rare neuromuscular disorder that weakens the body’s voluntary muscles.

For Braniyah, it means random seizures, irregular heartbeats, regular hospital visits, painful tests, and an unpredictable body that sometimes just won’t cooperate.

Braniyah Toote – Patient, Myasthenia Gravis
“Sometimes it makes my hair hurt or sometimes my temper hurt.”

Braniyah Toote – Patient, Myasthenia Gravis
“Sometimes my eye gets very blurry. It’s like I’m looking through a cloud.”

Her mother, Deedgra Toote, remembers the first sign that something was wrong.

Deedgra Toote – Mother
“The left eye completely shut down. We were up and down to the doctors, trying to figure it out, doing all kinds of blood work. And finally, accident and emergency ,  and then PMH diagnosed her.”

Deedgra Toote – Mother
“She experienced a lot of weakness in her arms and her legs. You always know when she’s really down, she doesn’t play, she doesn’t do anything.”

But the diagnosis only marked the beginning of a long and uncertain journey. With no local specialists for the disease, Braniyah’s family was forced to look abroad.

With her mother being unemployed and her father deceased, her brother Jahiem Rahming says the monthly visits will be costly.

Jahiem Rahming – Brother
“The doctor recommends that she go back to the clinic about every two to three months out of Yale. We have to conclude this year with those visits starting in June 2023. So her doctor visits would roughly add up to about $15,000 for the rest of the year.”

To help ease the financial burden, Braniyah’s family has started raising funds by selling custom awareness T-shirts ,  but they’re still in need of additional donations.