NEED TO KNOW

When Sam Taylor was 11, he began having chronic headaches

It turned out to be a low-grade optic glioma, a type of brain tumor that affects the optic nerve

Now 22 years old, Taylor shares an update on his health with PEOPLE, and how he's built a community over the years

In 2014, shortly after starting middle school, Sam Taylor began having what he thought were chronic headaches and "weird vision issues.”

“It was never horrible enough to be something seriously wrong. I'd tell my parents and I'd get the classic, ‘Oh, you're dehydrated. You don't drink enough water,'" Taylor tells PEOPLE. "That's always been a running joke in our family since."

After months of brushing off his symptoms, Taylor finally scheduled an appointment with a local eye doctor to get things checked out

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