Into the Storm: Alumna creates foundation to serve cancer warriors
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | sophia.fahleson@okstate.edu
Going through life, achieving every dream she ever worked for, Brooke Taylor devoted the early part of adulthood to her career.
Then, on July 22, 2019, Taylor’s world shifted.
A breast cancer diagnosis the day she welcomed her daughter into the world quickly changed Taylor’s perspective on life, she said.
During the final stage of Taylor’s pregnancy, she discovered a lump on her breast. She advocated for herself, asking for the evaluation that led to cancer identification.
As a result, her baby needed to be delivered so more testing could be done, Taylor said.
“I received the call at 8 a.m., ‘I’m sorry, kiddo. It’s cancer’ and became a mom six hours later,” she said.
This was not the first time Taylor had encountered cancer. She lost her father early in her childhood and her grandfather during her pregnancy because of cancer, she said.
She and her husband, Damon, who also graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s degree in natural resource ecology and management, had planned to keep her pregnancy quiet, she said, and announce it after their daughter, Elsie, was born.
After the cancer diagnosis, however, Taylor chose to share the best and worst day, she said.
“My very best day and my very worst day were on the same day,” Taylor said. “Being human means we get to feel the tragedy and hard things in our life, and if we’re really lucky, we get to experience the exceptional days on top of it.”
During high school, Taylor’s counselor told her she was not smart enough to go to college, she said. This inspired Taylor to pursue a degree in agricultural communications at OSU, where she graduated with distinction in December 2008.
While at OSU, she immersed herself into every opportunity possible, she said. As a first-generation college student, she balanced leadership positions, membership in clubs, and, at one point, three jobs to pay her way through school. Taylor also was the 2008 OSU Homecoming Queen.
“I jumped into the deep end,” Taylor said. “I thought, ‘I’m only here for a short time. I am going to do everything I possibly can.’”
She stayed at OSU to obtain her master’s degree in international agriculture, and then, her career took off, she said.
Taylor advanced to the forefront of marketing and communications at advertising, reputation and management agencies across the country, she said. She worked with brands like Smithfield Foods, Bayer Crop Science and Elanco, eventually living in Nashville. In 2017, she decided to launch her own company, which allowed her to move back to Oklahoma, she said.
“It was terrifying to go from climbing the corporate ladder to launching my own brand and betting on myself,” Taylor said. “I launched Rural Gone Urban from an apartment in a horse barn in Payne County, Oklahoma.”
All the people who rallied behind Taylor during her career still supported her and her company, she said. Many of the brands she had worked with during her career took the opportunity to work with her again. The same go-getter attitude followed her into each phase of her life, even the uncertain ones, she said.
“People ask why I’m so inspirational,” Taylor said. “But, I am just doing what any of us do — the next thing.”
The next thing for Taylor sparked the establishment of the Rural Gone Urban Foundation.
Even after completing active treatment for Stage 2B triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer, Taylor was excited to “live with no evidence of disease,” she said.
Two years later, Taylor learned her cancer had returned. The date was March 11, 2022, the same day, 29 years after her father died from colon cancer. This time, the cancer was much worse — metastatic triple-negative breast cancer with an estimated survival rate of about 13 months, Taylor said.
“We met back at my house after the diagnosis to make an end-of-life plan, which sounds really sad,” said Stephanie Gibbs, Rural Gone Urban Foundation vice chair. “She did not have a good prognosis, and we needed to decide what kind of legacy she wanted to leave behind for Elsie.”
Gibbs and Taylor met in sixth grade and quickly became best friends. The two have been through all walks of life together, Gibbs said. When Taylor received the news of her cancer reoccurrence, she was at Gibbs’ house, where she stayed after PET scans to quarantine from her daughter because of a small dose of radiation.
Launching the Rural Gone Urban Foundation was Taylor’s vision. If she left her daughter behind, this is how she wanted to be remembered by her, she said.
The foundation provides three types of support pillars to rural women: scholarships, small-business grants and Love Bombs.
Each pillar represents a pivotal moment in Taylor’s life, she said, reflecting her experience as a first-generation college student, launching her own company, and continuing to experience life despite a cancer diagnosis.
Love Bombs are financial assistance meant for those with a cancer diagnosis to allow them to focus on their living legacies, Taylor said.
“A friend of mine who had also been fighting cancer reached out and told me I needed to check out Brooke Taylor and the Rural Gone Urban Foundation,” said Brandy Clevenger, a Love Bomb recipient. “My friend told me Brooke’s story was very inspiring.”
Clevenger was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor of the small intestine in November 2023.
Typical treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy did not work for Clevenger, so her medical team surgically removed her first tumor and the additional tumors she developed.
After following Taylor online, Clevenger said she began to feel connected to Taylor. Then, about three months into engaging with Taylor’s social media, Clevenger discovered the Love Bombs.
“My family and I had been talking about taking a trip when I was feeling better post-surgery because we wanted to make memories together,” Clevenger said. “I had seen that’s what the Love Bombs were for, and I knew with my medical stuff, financially, we couldn’t afford to travel.”
After receiving a Love Bomb, she and her family took a vacation to Denver, which was a great opportunity to enjoy their time with one another, Clevenger said.
“It’s been inspiring and empowering,” Clevenger said. “We know the memories our family made were gifted to us from people who have shown love by giving somebody something when they’re going through a hard time.”
The foundation officially launched March 28, 2022.
As of today, they have distributed 52 scholarships, Love Bombs and grants since 2023.
Taylor, now living again with no evidence of disease, serves as the founder, board chair and executive director of Rural Gone Urban Foundation.
Each day, she builds the foundation as a legacy for her daughter, she said.
“Although this foundation launched because of one really hard day I had,” Taylor said, “it’s no longer about me at all. It’s about the people we help.”
Story by Mary Wood | Cowboy Journal