September 7, 2024 marked my 20-year anniversary of living with MS. Now, more than two decades later, it is hard to believe that I have lived with the disease longer than I lived without it. Although the journey has included challenges and uncertainties, I have benefited tremendously from the unwavering support of my “team”: my family, friends, mentors, and medical providers. This incredible community—together with groundbreaking advances in MS research and treatment—has enabled me to pursue my dreams and achieve my goals. As I approach the completion of my medical training, I am deeply grateful to all of you and to my medical team for their compassionate care, their dedication to pushing MS research forward, and their commitment to improving the lives of everyone affected by MS.
In May 2025, Kate, Sandy, and I laced up our sneakers and ran the Providence Half Marathon together. The perseverance, strength, resilience, discipline—and yes, even pain—required for distance running felt like the perfect metaphor for living with MS, and it was an incredibly meaningful way to honor this journey. Through your generosity, TeaM BryantS raised more than $70,000 to support the research of Dr. Victoria M. Leavitt, a neuropsychologist at Columbia University Medical Center who has dedicated her career to studying MS.
Dr. Leavitt’s work focuses on aspects of living with MS that are essential to maintaining quality of life, including fatigue, cognitive changes, sleep, exercise, mood, diet, and social support. She also leads treatment trials aimed at helping people with MS exercise more comfortably. From my competitive basketball days to intense Bryant family tennis matches and, more recently, countless miles on New England running trails, all of you know how central movement and exercise have always been to my life. Dr. Leavitt’s research has truly “kept me in the game.” MS-related fatigue remains one of my most challenging symptoms and remains one of the least understood symptoms. It gives me hope that researchers are working to understand it and develop more effective treatments for it.
We are inspired by the continued progress that Dr. Leavitt and her colleagues are making to understand the complex pathology of MS, and we will support her research until we achieve the goal of ending MS forever.
We are incredibly grateful for your continued support over the years. Your generosity, encouragement, and commitment over the years mean the world to us—thank you for standing with us every step of the way.
To make a donation to TeaM BryantS, please visit:
Click on the “Support Me” button in the upper right corner.
If you would like to send a check, please make it payable to the Trustees of Columbia University, and indicate MS Brain Resilience Research/Team Bryants on the memo line and mail to:
Carrie Bryant
60 Longwood Avenue #309
Brookline, MA 02446
I will make sure it gets to the MS Brain Resilience Research Fund. If you have any questions, please contact us at teambryantsiblings@gmail.com. Thank you for your generosity and continued support of a cause that means so much to the entire Bryant family.
TeaM BryantS 