Brantlee Mumford, 11-year-old Levine Children’s patient, honors fellow kids with jersey

Brantlee Mumford laid out a colorful lanyard.

An 11-year-old who lost the ability to use his arms and legs last fall, Mumford has always collected lanyards and hung them on his baseball bag. He had yet to receive one from Levine Children’s Hospital.

Diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome last fall, Mumford exhibits a particularly positive attitude. The first day he was able to bring himself out of bed and into a wheelchair, his mother brought him down to the gift shop in the hospital lobby.

A dark lanyard filled with ribbons in different colors caught Mumford’s eye. He asked the woman at the desk what the colors represented — and learned that each of the vibrant-colored symbols on the Levine Children’s lanyards stand for each illness that the hospital treats.

The following day, the Charlotte Knights held their annual contest that allows Levine Children’s patients to design game-worn jerseys. Mumford was back in his hospital bed, unable to go downstairs and meet the Knights’ players.

But he did decide to participate. And even in the midst of his own excruciating pain, he had other people in mind as he created a Knights baseball jersey.

“Colored it the colors of the lanyard for all of the children, to think about them,” Mumford said.

A big heart at a young age

Chasity Honeycutt, Mumford’s mother, always strove to instill the importance of caring for others.

She feels her son has always had a sympathetic heart. He previously suffered from ADHD and anxiety — but you wouldn’t know it.

Mumford found ways to tolerate his conditions and prevent them from holding him back. He’s always been selfless and has never been a quitter.

It was truly important to him that he designed a jersey with colors representing the other children who were in the hospital alongside him.

“I remember Brantlee being in the hospital, and the state that he was in was not the best,” Honeycutt said. “But seeing kids that were worse than him. That touched him. It really did.

‘He’s just the best’

As recreational therapist in the Atrium Health rehab unit, Bri McAlpine’s job is to find out what youth hospital patients like to do for fun.

When she met Mumford, he could barely sit up in bed by himself. He was constantly in pain, and every movement was hard for him. That wasn’t his attitude.

“I’m a ballplayer,” McAlpine remembers him telling her. “But I know I can’t do that.”

Said McAlpine: “But you can.”

McAlpine introduced him to virtual reality baseball, and he was even more determined to get out of bed. Mumford went from sitting in a chair playing this virtual baseball game to a bench, eventually a normal chair and the edge of a mat.

Mumford, who could barely grip the controllers at first, finds himself telling his Atrium Health staffers to let his parents and baseball coaches know that he’s practicing.

“He would just always say, ‘You’ve got this, dude!’ Like, even in the moment when he didn’t, he was telling other people that they did,” McAlpine said. “He’s just always had that persona about him. He’s just the best — to be so young and have that instilled in him.”

‘Creativity and passion combined’

When Olivia Chisholm distributed the art supplies for the jersey contest, she didn’t know if Mumford was even feeling up to participating.

Chisholm, the program director of Arts For Life, mostly sees kids try to express themselves — if anything — through their artwork. Especially at Mumford’s age.

But again, even when he could barely lift himself to sit upright, Mumford was thinking of other people.

“Not only did he do this, but he really fought through discomfort,” Chisholm said. “Because it mattered that much to him. It was just so special.

“For me to see that finished design, it was just so beyond himself — and also represented what other kids and families were going through for the hospital. The level of creativity and compassion combined, it’s just a beautiful design. I’m really proud of him.”

First 1,500 kids on Saturday got one of Mumford’s jerseys

Charlotte Knights players wore the jerseys Mumford designed in Saturday’s game against the Gwinnett Stripers.

The first 1,500 children in attendance at Truist Field that night also received a youth-sized replica of Mumford’s jersey, courtesy of Atrium Health.

The team plans to auction the jerseys off to benefit Arts for Life, a Levine Children’s Hospital art therapy program.