With a smile that can light up a room and an attitude that would make even Grumpy Cat change his tune, Megan Brown is a powerhouse of determination and inspiration with a history to back it up.
Last September, Megan was the keynote speaker at Camp Korey, a summer camp for children with challenging medical conditions located in Carnation, Washington. She is well versed in what the camp has to offer. She has been a counselor, mentor, and at one time a camper herself.
Megan has a craniofacial condition called Hemangioma. It’s a benign tumor she was born with. “It turned out to be really life threatening,” said Megan, who was born in Bremerton in 1993. “Most of the time it’s not, but in my case it was and back then very little was known about it where I lived.”
She was then seen by professionals at Seattle Children’s Hospital who quickly diagnosed and started treating her. “I took steroids and an experimental drug, alpha interferon, to stop the growth of the tumor. That’s what saved my life but I spent my whole childhood dealing with surgeries. Most Hemangiomas go away on their own… mine was life threatening and covered one of my eyes. Thankfully it didn’t take my vision,” said Megan.
So in 2008, when Camp Korey opened, Megan was one of the first to attend. She was 15-years-old. After spending two years as a camper, she transitioned into being a counselor and mentor for the younger campers. Every year she returns to reconnect with friends, mentor kids and be an advocate for others
“Camp is a family,” said Megan. “Many of these people know exactly the same adversity I face every day of my life. We ‘get’ each other. There is a comradery with going through the same things and at camp we come together.” Since then she has had a place to go where people truly understand.
That’s why getting a call to be the keynote speaker at Camp Korey was such an honor. “As the keynote speaker, I was able to share with an audience about my favorite place and what’s cool is it took me forever to really sit down and write the speech because I had so much to say,” said Megan. But when she got on stage she realized the speech wasn’t about her. What it was really about was the camp and every single camper who attends. She was speaking on behalf of them all. “Yes, they were my experiences but I made sure they could be felt and it was something all campers could relate to.”
“She has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know,” said friend, former coworker and fellow 2015 Saint Martin’s University graduate Ben Lopez. “She genuinely cares for everyone and wants everyone to be happy.”
Ben met Megan through a mutual friend during their first year of college. They stayed close friends while working together as Residence Advisors and mentors to first year students. She reached out for advice on giving a keynote speech because her friend has recently given one during the Gala at SMU.
“She asked how I stayed calm and remembered all my stuff and delivered it properly. I said you just have to practice. Nobody there is going be disappointed in you for telling your story. I just encouraged her and reassured her that her story was going to be great,” described Ben.
And she was great! “After the speech she was super excited,” recalled Ben. “It went really well. She got to meet Dan Lewis and Steve Pool (of KOMO4 News fame). She was so excited about that. She was moved to see how her story was impacting and empowering others. It was really neat to see her realize how she can help others with her story.”
Megan is healthy now. The Hemangioma is gone. But the scars remain, even though they have slowly faded through the years. When it comes to scars, Megan said, “I once heard a quote, ‘Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you conquered whatever tried to kill you.’ I know the rest of my life I will have a facial difference, but I remind myself daily that this is just one part of my purpose. I know I was made specifically this way.”
So how does Megan persevere through the hard times? She looks at it like a storm. “It’s going to pass. Even though I’m facing adversity and it’s tough in that moment, I’ve faced it in the past and there are brighter days to come,” she described. “There are going to be bad times, people are going to discriminate. And that’s tough.”
But Megan knows she can overcome and it doesn’t define her. She is more than just her scars. With her positive attitude and faith she can push forward. “I can’t share my story without including my faith,” said Megan. “I look at the keynote speech as a stepping stone, along with my video testimony that I gave to my church, newlife.tv, on Easter. I realized on that day that if I was going to come out as an advocate for this craniofacial population, that it would allow me the opportunity for me to share my story when people asked me about what happened. A light turned on and what’s cool is all the love I received on that day, knowing my story was being shared to help others. Knowing it was just the start of something new. One thing they say at newlife.tv church is, ‘If it’s not good, God’s not done.’ God is going to continue to use my story for his glory.”
Her story certainly is not finished. In November it was presented to the staff at Northwest University, her pastor’s alma mater and continues to be watched and shared on Facebook.
A video of Megan’s presentation from Camp Korey can be found here.
