May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month, and one Southampton resident is using her own medical journey to inspire strength, movement and access to lifesaving care.

Leisa Taylor says her life “felt like a fairy tale” until a routine eye doctor appointment in 2019 changed everything. Just two weeks before her wedding, her doctor urged her to go straight to the hospital.

"He told me right then and there that he believed I had a brain tumor," Taylor said. "It was pretty terrifying... also a little gut wrenching."

Within 48 hours, Taylor underwent a nine‑hour craniotomy at Stony Brook University Hospital. Surgeons were unable to remove the entire benign tumor, and complications - including multiple seizures - kept her hospitalized for a month and forced her to postpone her wedding.

Years later, when the tumor began to grow again, Taylor was referred to the New York Proton Center, the only facility in New York State offering proton therapy, a highly targeted form of radiation that can treat tumors with millimeter precision while sparing healthy tissue. Taylor says she faced two choices: repeated surgeries every few years or radiation therapy. She chose proton therapy.

"Now my tumor is inactive which is such a great thing." Taylor said. "We do monitor it every six months. I get an MRI and I speak with my multitude of doctors, my whole team. I get to live life pretty normally, so that's great.

But Taylor says her deeper healing began on the floor of her home. A former dancer, she began performing Pilates mat exercises she remembered.

"For me, that was empowering. I felt like myself again. I felt like I was capable," Taylor recalls. "It was also such a moment of growth internally for connecting my mind back to my body."

That experience led her to launch LTMovement, a platform where she now teaches Pilates across the Hamptons, both in-person and virtually.

"Body and movement should be about more than just what you look like in the mirror," she said. "I wanted other people to find the strength to uncover the resilience within themselves and through movement and I wanted movement to be more than just a goal towards esthetics."

Taylor is also giving back to the center that helped save her life. On Friday, July 24, she will host a charity Pilates event at Canoe Place Inn in Hampton Bays, with proceeds supporting the New York Proton Center Foundation. Her goal is to raise awareness and help more patients access the same advanced treatment she received.