RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A stroke took her grandfather’s ability to speak, but an N.C. State University student has become a voice for others facing neurological issues.

Even though she never heard him speak the words, Charlotte Fullbright knows how much her grandfather cared for her.

“I know he loved me all the time, but I did see that his life was a lot more difficult than a lot of people’s,” said Fullbright.

A stroke left her grandfather paralyzed on the right side of his body when he was just 55 years old. It also left him with a condition called aphasia.

“Aphasia is a condition where people know what they want to say, but they have trouble saying it,” Fullbright explained. “Cognitively, they’re intact, but it’s difficult a lot of times to communicate with people.”

To help people like her grandfather, in 2019 Fullbright organized a battle of the bands event at Broughton High School to raise money for the Triangle Aphasia Project.

“They’ve been able, through our donations in the past, to start two awesome new programs,” she said.

In 2020, COVID led to the cancellation of the event just days before it was scheduled to take place.

This year, on April 15, for first time since the pandemic, the Maintain Your Brain Battle of The Bands is back — this time it’s at N.C. State. Several bands will compete, and local resources will provide information about concussions, traumatic brain injury, dementia, and other neurological issues.

“What people who suffer from this, and many other neurological disorders, need really is people to understand what they are going through and to be patient with them, to be a friend,” she said, adding that her goal is to bring awareness to neurological health.

The Maintain Your Brain Battle Of The Bands takes place April 15 from 1-4 p.m. at Stafford Commons at NC State University. The event is free. To learn more, click here.