What makes The Bee Foundation so special is the connection among brain aneurysm survivors and their support network. Each of our Awareness Ambassadors’ lives have been impacted forever and suddenly by a Brain Aneurysm. This is why we believe that the voices of our Ambassadors are at the core of who we are and what we do. In partnership together our mission is to raise awareness of brain aneurysms and increase funding for innovative research that prevents brain aneurysms and saves lives.
An estimated 6 million people in the United States have an unruptured brain aneurysm, or 1 in 50 people. The annual rate of rupture is approximately 8 per 100,000 people or about 30,000 people in the United States suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm. There is a brain aneurysm rupturing every 18 minutes.
“Bee Beautiful”
Being an Ambassador of anything is a privilege especially if it relates directly to you! I had a brain aneurysm. Daily I am grateful to be alive and I take full responsibility for everything that I do – including how I respond to the unexpected. Being an Ambassador for Bee Foundation allows me to share my own experience so I can support people to short cut the otherwise lengthy journey of recovery that they may find themselves in. I look forward to growing with Bee Foundation.
“Bee Active, Bee Ethical, Bee Confident “
Alongside helping others it was also important for me to help our planet! Having always been interested in sustainability, the social change that was happening in society & wanting to live better due to my life changing experience, all helped to enhance my focus around this. I want to continue to raise awareness for both brain injuries and living better.
“Bee Authentic”
I want to be an ambassador for The Bee Foundation because of what the Bee Foundation has meant to me in the last 18 months since my ruptured brain aneurysm. I want to be a voice for survivors, give hope to those who are suffering in silence, and help prevent this from happening to others.
“Bee Intentional”
One reason why I’d like to be an Ambassador for The Bee Foundation is because I had no idea anyone could even survive a brain aneurysm rupture before I survived one myself. I have made it my personal goal to spread the word on the signs and symptoms of ruptured aneurysms and to raise overall awareness of this often misunderstood and very underfunded condition. An estimated 6.8 million Americans — about 1 in 50 — are living with an unruptured brain aneurysm. Another reason I’d like to be an Ambassador for TBF is that with continued and constant education on brain aneurysms that misdiagnoses like I had experienced will be a thing of the past. Please know that there is a warm, welcoming, and strong community of people from all over the world that know how you feel all too well and getting involved in The Bee Foundation is one great resource and place to meet like-minded people.
“Bee Poetic”
I sometimes feel like I don’t always know what is going on when it comes to raising awareness, and I always want to do more but never know where or how to start. The Ambassador group will be a great way to connect more with the group, learn more and do more to help make a difference.
“Bee resilient”
I wanted to be an ambassador to able to help others navigate through their recovery.
“Bee resilient, Bee your own advocate, and Bee love”
I wanted to be an ambassador to help other people if possible and share my experience with people. I also love the Bee Foundation and want to bring awareness to aneurysms and this organization. I feel lucky to have found this group and resource and it’s been so helpful for me.
“Beelieve Her”
In 2019, a ruptured brain aneurysm changed everything. What followed, the surgeries, the complications, the years of recovery, I wasn’t warned were coming, taught me something I wish I’d known sooner: that advocating for yourself in a medical system that doesn’t always listen is its own kind of survival skill. My bee phrase is Beelieve Her. Believe her when she tells you she needs help. Believe her when she tells you she’s going to be okay. Believe her when she finds her way back to herself. I became a Bee Foundation Ambassador because this community is proof that all things are possible — being heard, being supportive and continuing to heal.
“Bee Kind to Yourself”
The Bee Foundation has played a huge part of my recovery process following my AVM, previous bleed, and additional unruptured aneurysm diagnosis almost ten years ago. The amazing individuals I have met through TBF are truly some of the strongest and most inspiring people I have met along this path. I am honored to be an ambassador, and hope to remind others to ‘bee kind to yourself’ by giving themselves grace and celebrating each small step throughout the recovery journey.
“Bee Free”
I think a strong point in healing is through an even stronger community. One that pushes you to become the best version of yourself while still maintaining it’s supportive values. That’s what the Bee Foundation brings and that’s why I want to be an ambassador with this lovely organization. Everyone that I’ve met so far has been so extremely kind, beyond understanding, and a type of genuine that we all need now. I’m going to continue to share my story and my mom’s story to help others get tested and know that brain aneurysms can happen to anyone, especially when it runs in your family. I lived for too long under the pretenses that “it can never happen to me” and it taught me otherwise. No one should have to go through a ruptured brain aneurysm and they don’t have to so long as it’s caught early.
“Bee Positive”
One day on LinkedIn, I happened to see The Bee Foundation had a virtual call for a brain aneurysm support group. I looked at the clock, and I could immediately attend and learn more. It was fate! Prior to that moment, I felt alone. I never knew anyone who had a brain aneurysm let alone surgery followed by a brain bleed like I had gone through. Several years have gone by since this experience, and it changed me into the new 2.0 version of myself. You don’t forget brain trauma no matter what it is or how long it has been. Connecting with others through TBF has helped me no longer feel alone, grow as a person, learn, advocate, and be positive for others going through similar circumstances. Positivity from others helped me move forward, so as an ambassador, my goal is always to ‘bee positive’ for anyone going through a brain aneurysm or brain trauma.
“Bee Compassionate”
I want to be an ambassador because helping others gives me fulfillment.
“Bee Grateful”
“Bee Courageous”
“Bee-Lieve”
“Bee in community“
I want to be an ambassador to connect the work I put out in the world with the foundation that has so greatly benefited me and many others effected by aneurysms.
“Bee Gutsy. Bee Heroic. Bee Intoxicating “
I remember this awful thing happening to me and feeling like I had no one around me who could understand or help me. I felt — and sometimes still feel — so alone in this world that I didn’t ask to be in. So, as I move forward and progress, I want to be able to help another young person who had an aneurysm disrupt their life. If only to let them know they are not alone, and they don’t have to be.
Bee loved, Bee passionate, Bee heard .
My connection to the BEE foundation resonates with the loss of my twin sister Brittany, who lost her life at 21 years old from a ruptured brain aneurysm. Being an ambassador is important in order to share my sister’s story, share the love, be passionate in advocating for this deadly disease and making others feel heard. At the end of the day all of our stories are different but are interconnected. My heart is filled with determination to spread awareness, fund for research and never give up in preventing this from happening to others.
“Always Bee You”
We were once three. I lost my beautiful 21 year old twin daughter Brittany on the right side of me. Brittany was very healthy and this is a shock to all of us. A sudden rupture Brain aneurysm took her life. We all all trying to come to grips with this terrible tragedy. We are working to help others in Brittany’s memory , by working with the Bee foundation to raise awareness and to help fund for research, with the hopes to help save lives from this terrible disease. We will continue to help others in Brittany’s honor, to speak about brain aneurysms and with more funded research for an aneurysm to be found before they Rupture . Brittany is missed everyday this should have never happened and live in pain without her. By spreading awareness and helping to fund for research we hope to help others.
“To Bee the light for my sister and others”
My sister, my best friend, Lora Ritchie, died January 18 2022 at age 43 from a ruptured aneurysm. She left so much behind. Her parents, her children (3 girls 7,11,13) her husband, her niece, nephews, friends and ME. I miss her every second of every day. I want to find the “why” and help funding for future research so no one ever feels this Excruciating pain.
“Bee Purposeful”
“Bee Relentless”
“Bee Thoughtful”
“Bee Open”
“Bee Proactive”
The Bee Foundation has helped me learn about aneurysms and to find my voice to help others learn about them. I want to be a part of the solution as no one should have to go through what I went through. The focus on PREVENTION is key for me.
“Bee Bold”
To ‘bee’ an ambassador means to advocate fiercely for a cause. I sincerely believe in the mission of The Bee Foundation to raise awareness and gain funding to back critical research for the prevention and treatment of deadly AVMs and aneurysms. The organization provided me a safe space to “bee” myself and recover from the most life-changing experience that’s ever happened to me.
“Bee for Others”
I want to be a TBFAmbassador because I know how overwhelming and isolating a brain aneurysm diagnosis can feel. Through my own journey, I learned how powerful it is to have a community that reminds you that you are not alone.
Being an ambassador is my opportunity to give that same sense of hope and connection to others. I want to use my experience to raise awareness, share hope, and be there for someone who may be facing the same fear and uncertainty I once did. For me, it’s about turning my experience into purpose and using my story in service of others.
“Bee Strong”
My goal is to pay it forward to help provide others with the same resources that I received after my AVM rupture, and hopefully help prevent brain aneurysms and AVM rupture from happening altogether
Join us as TBF Ambassador Catherine Navarro interviews our amazing TBF ambassadors about their “bee phrase,” what the TBF support hive has meant to them during their recovery, and something personal to their experience.
