After losing her teenage daughter to prescription drug overdose, Lisa Brandy decided to take action. Her organization, Brandi’s Wish, spreads awareness about prescription drug abuse and now helps more than a dozen people per year receive scholarships for drug rehab treatment.
Lisa Brandy has a tragically common story. Her daughter Brandi became addicted to prescription opioids in high school. Lisa, a loving and understanding mother, did everything she could to support Brandi and help her overcome her opioid use disorder. Despite her parents’ best efforts, Brandi died of a drug overdose in March 2011. She was 18 years old. What has not been common about Lisa’s story is her response to her loss.
Lisa Brandy with her daughter, Brandi.
Brandi’s Story
Brandi Meshad grew up in Sarasota, a city on Florida’s west coast with incredible beaches. She was beautiful, funny and intelligent, adored by her friends and family alike. She had two loving parents and three younger sisters. Carina Corry, Brandi’s lifelong best friend, says Brandi was quickly liked by anyone who met her. “She was one of those individuals that people just wanted to be around all the time,” Corry told DrugRehab.com. “Her laugh was infectious, and she knew how to make anyone laugh.” Brandi was not only well-liked; she was also caring. She and Corry formed a group called Teens for Wishes when they were 14. “We wanted to give back to the community,” Brandi told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2006. The group organized a fundraising event for teens called the Silver Lining Ball, a semiformal event where teens wore black and white as the theme. All proceeds from the ball went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a nonprofit that fulfills the dreams of terminally ill children. The Silver Lining Ball was about having fun in a safe environment for a good cause. Teens who attended the event were required to sign a form promising to stay safe and to not use drugs or alcohol. The work Brandi did with the Silver Lining Ball was indicative of the kind of person she was. “She was so carefree, loving and hysterical,” said Corry. But in her early teens, Brandi started smoking marijuana. She liked it and used it for a while but was able to stop and not develop a marijuana addiction. It was not until she began using opioid painkillers that Brandi struggled with substance abuse. One of her best friends was a heavy opioid user who dealt roxies, prescription painkillers containing oxycodone, around Sarasota. Brandi would get pills from her friend for free most of the time. Roxies became an easy option when Brandi wanted to get high. Roxies also helped Brandi sleep; she suffered from sleep issues as a teenager. She quickly became addicted to the opioids. What started out as half a pill every day eventually became two or three. When she thought she was doing drugs too much, she would stop for a few days but would always go back to using shortly after that. As Brandi’s opioid use disorder progressed, her mental health began to deteriorate. She struggled with depression and anxiety and began isolating herself from her friends and family.
Brandi struggled with opioid abuse and depression.
Lisa’s Mission
After Brandi’s death, Lisa was left with so many questions. She had an understanding of addiction and how the disease can take hold of people, but did others? She did everything she could to save Brandi — inpatient treatment, therapeutic high school and continued support — but she was still gone. Despite the resources Lisa and her family had, including insurance coverage, Brandi was still gone. Lisa struggled with the thought that if this could happen to Brandi, who had all the help and support anyone could ask for, what will happen to the generation of youth struggling with addiction who do not have the support and resources Brandi did? “I couldn’t wrap my mind around what happens to all these young people that don’t have supportive families or don’t have the financial resources or don’t have the experts helping them,” said Lisa. “I think that is the main reason why I said I had to do something even if it helps just one young person.” She decided the best way to honor Brandi was to save others at risk from the epidemic that took her daughter’s life. In 2011, she formed Brandi’s Wish, a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive support to young people and families battling addiction. The Goals of Brandi’s Wish Foundation- To actively work in changing state legislation and pass laws to protect our children from the dangers of prescription drug misuse and abuse.
- To work with schools and create programs to educate families and teens to the danger of abusing prescription medications.
- To offer referral services and guidance to those families in need of rehabilitative and substance abuse recovery programs.
- To help families in need of financial assistance if they have a teen in crisis and cannot afford the cost of rehabilitative programs.
Source: BrandisWish.org
Through Brandi’s Wish, Lisa made it her mission to save young people battling substance use disorders, to guide their families through recovery and to help those without the necessary resources help themselves. Unlike larger organizations that aim to have a broad impact on substance abuse, Brandi’s Wish focuses on individuals and their families. The nonprofit does whatever it can to help teens reach recovery and stay sober. Lisa says the key to helping someone stay sober is treatment followed by continued support. Brandi’s Wish provides young people with both. She not only helps teens get into treatment but also offers them support for at least a year. Lisa said she stays in contact with teens she helps “so that they don’t feel so lost after they get out or so they know there’s somebody that loves them and somebody that cares about what’s happening in their life, their journey.” Brandi’s Wish walks families through the process of getting their loved ones into treatment and explains the steps they should take upon completion of the rehab program. “It may be a family that has insurance but has no idea how to navigate through this process. We can also help place them, and there’s no fee for any of this,” said Lisa. “Nobody pays us to do that, nobody makes any money from our end.” One of Lisa’s proudest accomplishments through Brandi’s Wish is the scholarship program the organization has developed. If a young person wants to end their addiction but does not have the financial means to do so, Brandi’s Wish can offer them a full treatment scholarship for inpatient or outpatient treatment, detox and sober housing. Brandi’s Wish does not simply provide its scholarship recipients with money. Each individual who receives financial assistance signs a contract agreeing to attend support meetings, get a sponsor and take accountability for their actions in return for receiving funds for treatment, housing and paying bills while in recovery. Although the Brandi’s Wish scholarship program has drawn criticism from larger organizations who say that the scholarship is addressing addiction on too small a scale, the results teens see from the program speak volumes. “I’m glad I didn’t feel that way or the people who believe in what we do don’t feel that way because there are people literally alive today because we took the time of helping that one person or being in the trench with that one family,” said Lisa.Brandi’s Wish Weekend Tennis Tournament
The most important weekend for Brandi’s Wish comes in the fall every year when the organization hosts the Brandi’s Wish Weekend Tennis Tournament. For Lisa, the tennis tournament is a way to honor Brandi; the two used to love to play tennis together. “One of the things that we did together as mother and daughter was play tennis,” said Lisa. “That’s what we did ever since she was little for fun and to spend time together. When she was in recovery, part of our goal was to get out there and hit three times a week, take some lessons together.” Shortly following Brandi’s death in 2011, the head pro at Lisa’s local tennis club approached Lisa and asked if the club could work with her to hold a tennis tournament to raise addiction awareness. “That’s really how the tennis tournament started,” said Lisa. “We kind of jumped into it the first year knowing nothing about having a tennis tournament. Six years later, we’re still going strong.”
Each year Brandi’s Wish hosts a tennis tournament.
Eliminating the Stigma of Addiction
Lisa continues her fight every day. In addition to making a difference in the lives of young people, Lisa is raising awareness. She wants to eliminate the stigma associated with substance use disorders because from her own personal experience, those with addictions are not bad people. They’re people struggling with a debilitating illness, and the rest of the country needs to recognize this. “You see very quickly when the disease of addiction is present, it is not a choice at that point,” said Lisa. “It is a hijacking of the brain, a reoccurring brain disease, all the different things we hear about it. I watched it in action with Brandi because I never saw a young girl fight so hard and want to get well.” This mindset is part of what drives her to help others. Her wish, along with Brandi’s, is that she can be a part of the movement that helped end drug addiction, the movement that saved a generation of young people.Medical Disclaimer: DrugRehab.com aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content about the nature of behavioral health conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider.