When Jordan Brass decided to create a fundraiser for her sister Tena’s brain cancer, she was nervous she wouldn’t hit her goal of $5,000.
Fast forward to after the event, and the total is still rising to over $31,000.
34-year-old Tena Brass has a stage 3 anaplastic astrocytoma brain tumour, and doctors discovered it after she randomly bumped her head around 12 years ago and she got it checked out. It wasn’t until three years ago that Tena received surgery for her brain tumour to remove part of her cancer.
Jordan says this is a type of cancer where doctors can’t remove it all or it could take away bodily functions.
“They got as much of it as they could, and tried to get the rest with chemo and radiation. So the brain cancerous tumour is still in her brain, but they scan it every two months and it hasn’t grown since the surgery which is the biggest win ever cause brain tumours love to grow,” said Jordan Brass.
On September 6, Jordan created a fundraiser called ‘Locks for Life’, where if she raised $5,000 by October 6, she would shave her dreadlocks in person at Tavern on Main.
Tena (left) and Jordan (right) Brass // photo by Angela Sjoquist
In under 48 hours Jordan hit her goal, where she constantly had friends sending screenshots of how quickly the community was coming together to raise funds.
On the night of the fundraiser at Tavern on Main, the pub reached capacity by 8 p.m., but the line to get in was wrapped around the block, so they opened the blinds so friends and family could watch the event through the windows.
Jordan said an impromptu live auction busted out as her dreads started to get cut off.
“We were auctioning off a couple of my dreads, and we got to $1,800 for one dread. And then randomly Mike Jones said ‘who wants to shave Jordan’s head?’ and we got up to $4,000 to shave my head,” said Jordan.
As of today (October 14) the total money raised is $31,558, with some donations still trickling in from the fundraiser.
“It means the absolute world to me, not only because it’s my sister, but the community here is so generous. Everybody is so supportive and this community is unreal,” said Jordan.
Jordan says her sister is currently on the sunshine coast in British Columbia, doing a two week long yoga training.
You can follow along with Tena and her wife’s journey on TikTok @ketokanagan.
