Lee Woodruff

Cofounder of the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation; author of In an Instant (Random House)
Video: Lee discusses her cause
Mother of Mack , 16, Cathryn, 14, and twins Nora
and Claire, 8

"When I heard that my husband [ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff] had been injured in Iraq in January 2006, I was alone with the children and away from home. I became what I refer to as 'the general': Whatever shock or grief I felt, I had to blunt it to protect my kids. Bob suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and I'd be lying if I said there weren't moments that I lay there helplessly, wondering where this little family was going. What many people don't understand about this injury—which is the signature wound of this war—is that it's a lifelong thing. Bob will always live with fatigue. When he gets tired, he's unable to grab certain words. But beyond that, his recovery has been miraculous. Understanding how lucky we were, and spending time with other families in the hospital and realizing how little voice they had concerning this issue, made us start the foundation. We need to be doing more for veterans with TBI when they come home. We need to be supporting their families. We need to be retraining them, because most cannot return to their jobs. We need to remember that it's not a political issue to help our veterans."

About The Bob Woodruff Family Foundation

Of the hundreds of thousands of troops that have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense estimates that 10 to 20 percent may have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Bob Woodruff Family Foundation works to provide long-term support to service members with TBI and their families. "We're eager to help grassroots organizations that are doing really good work on the ground: providing caregiving, family counseling, and retraining for injured vets," says cofounder Lee Woodruff. "These are organizations that otherwise might never get funding because they're so small."

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