Metcalfe County Girl Needs Help Fighting Leukemia
April 14, 2025
Brooklynne Mathis is a helper. Whether it’s lending a hand around the house, offering her teachers at school her time in the classroom or running concessions for the local little league football team, she likes to assist others.
“She’s always been a happy, peppy person,” said her mom, Robin Mathis. “Help anybody who ever needed anything. She was always offering to help. She’s always doing something.”
Now, Brooklynne needs help.
On March 8, Brooklynne was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. After seven frustrating months of battling constant strep throat and flu diagnoses and consistent fatigue, the 12-year-old from Metcalfe County was rushed to the hospital with a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop.
Seeing a pale, depleted Brooklynne, local doctors tested her blood, which revealed dangerously low hemoglobin and platelet levels. Within 40 minutes, Brooklynne and her mom were on an ambulance headed for more testing in Louisville. By the time two Louisville doctors walked in the room together, Robin knew it wasn’t good news.
“You kind of know then something bad is going to be said,” Robin said.
Brooklynne didn’t leave the hospital for 29 days for an immediate induction period of chemotherapy, steroids, spinal taps and blood transfusions. Still in the early stages of the diagnosis, the full plan for treatment hasn’t been set as doctors evaluate how effective initial treatments have been.
But Robin knows there is a long road ahead for her daughter, who is just now coming to grips with this life-altering fight.
“She’s doesn’t understand why anybody would have this,” Robin said. “Really, through her life, she’s never done anything to anybody. She’s never really been in trouble. She’s kind of like, ‘Why do I deserve this?’ ”
Brooklynne needed consistent blood transfusions during the induction period. Her blood levels were so low at diagnosis that doctors had to wait to do a spinal tap treatment until they could get her numbers back to a manageable level. It took seven units of platelets and three units of packed red blood cells to proceed.
To combat the leukemic cells and counter the toxic chemotherapy treatments, Brooklynne required blood transfusions up until the final week of her initial hospital stay. She will almost certainly need more in this long-term battle.
“You think something like this will never hit you,” Robin said. “There are people who have cancer, and you try to help them the best you can, but you just never think it’ll be your child.”
The reality is that many cancer patients require blood transfusions. Cancer patients use 25% of the blood supply.
And that’s where others can help. The girl that is always willing to offer a helping hand could use an assist from the community.
The health of the blood supply is precarious throughout the year. Simply put, not enough people donate blood regularly, leading to shortages. With all that Brooklynne faces, the one thing they don’t want to worry about is whether there is enough blood to aid with treatment.
To boost the supply for Brooklynne and others, members of the Metcalfe County community are hosting the Brooklynne Mathis Honorary Blood Drive on Saturday, May 3 at Metcalfe Middle School. The drive will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT in the gym.
“Literally donating can save somebody’s life,” Robin said. “Just a few minutes of your time. Yeah, you’re going to be stuck by a needle, but that little needle could save somebody’s life.”
Maybe even Brooklynne’s.
Robin said the Metcalfe County community has been tremendously supportive (“We’re all a family,” she said of the help they have received so far), and the upcoming blood drive is a tangible way people can support Brooklynne. Donors are encouraged to sign up for the drive by clicking this link.
“Whether you are acknowledged for it or not, you’re a hero every time you do it,” Robin said.