Nancy and Claude Horne of Sandy Springs lived “every parent’s nightmare” twice within a five-month period. Sons Jeffrey and Brian, both athletic, healthy college students born only 17 months apart, died of natural causes, leading the Hornes to enlist full-time in America’s war on cancer.
Their heartbreak led to a new non-profit 501c3 charity, Jeffrey’s Voice (http://jeffreysvoice.org/), that focuses solely on raising money to find cures for leukemia.
“The boys” grew up together, were best friends, played football on the same team at Mount Pisgah in Johns Creek, then went to Georgia Southern in Statesboro, where they were one year apart, and joined the same fraternity, Delta Chi.
And just before everything went wrong, all was going right.
Nancy got a phone call from Jeffrey. He was in the college infirmary, feeling like he had the flu. But a blood test suggested the diagnosis might be worse. And it was. He had a form of leukemia with a low survival rate, says Dr. Walter Curran Jr., director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, where Jeffrey was taken.
Brian rushed to Emory to give his brother stem cells, an often painful procedure.
Initially, the transplant seemed successful. Both boys were devastated when the leukemia returned, and Jeffrey died five months later, on Jan. 30, 2008. He was 20.
Then, about five months after Jeffrey’s death, Brian died of sudden cardiac arrest, on June 16, 2008. He was 19.
Brian wanted to keep fighting the disease and told his parents that he’d donate again if he could “give another person even five more months.”
His mother says “he died of a broken heart.”
Jeffrey also was courageous to the end, writing in his journal that he wouldn’t mind “being a lab rat if it will help other leukemia patients”’.
His mother says that one night he told her that he felt there was a plan behind their ordeal. “’Mom, it may be that I will get well and can help others with leukemia. Or it may be that I won’t. Then you can.’”
And she did, setting up the non-profit charity in 2009 with a web site about leukemia. A $10,000 donation soon came in from UPS, where both boys had worked. In less than a year, $50,000 had been raised, and the charity established the Jeffrey’s Voice Leukemia Research Fund at Winship.
All funds to the charity support research. Others who knew the boys have taken up the cause, and Jeffrey’s Voice has been named to a list of top-rated new charities.
Delta Chi member Wil Bryan says the fraternity has already raised several hundred dollars. “We’re not going to stop,” Wil says. Katie Strawinski, a student at Mount Pisgah, is planning a “Flap Jack Dash” 5K charity run Nov. 12.
The Hornes, who have a 33-year-old son, Allyn, know life will never be the same.
“The good Lord gives us a seat at the table, and you’ve just got to play the hand you’re dealt,” says dad Claude. “I’m not healed. I haven’t quit grieving. I never will.”
“I am going to fight this wretched disease,” Nancy says, “for the rest of my life.”
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