Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 25, 1994                   TAG: 9404250087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TODDLER'S FIGHT FOR LIFE NOW OVER

That's 20,000 girlfriends mourning the little boy's death Friday, along with his family and the Roanoke Valley residents who raised more than $33,000 last fall to help with a bone marrow transplant.

Jonathan, the victim of an extremely rare type of brain tumor, never got the transplant. He had been receiving chemotherapy, which was wiping out his bone marrow's infection-fighting ability, requiring a transplant.

But he didn't respond to the chemotherapy, and it was stopped. Instead, his parents flew him to Houston for treatment with an experimental drug that his father said has produced good results in patients.

"Jonathan had been through a lot," his father, Timothy Lawson, said Sunday. "He was a little fighter, but he just got tired."

The family had taken care of Jonathan at home. They made it through the two winter ice storms, when they lost power and Jonathan's oxygen machine had to be powered by a generator. His family administered the intravenous medications and feeding tubes, with the help of nurses at night.

"We wanted Jonathan at home the whole time," his father said. "We didn't him to die in the hospital."

But Friday, when they brought the toddler in with high fever and a swollen belly where the tumor had spread to his liver, his situation was worse than they thought. He died that night; the exact cause is unknown.

"They wanted to do an autopsy," Lawson said. "But Jonathan's been through so much."

The funeral for the 25-month-old will be today. The family has asked that instead of flowers, donations be made to the American Brain Tumor Association.

Lawson also said they plan to start an annual "Jonathan Walk" to raise money to help other children with brain tumors. Between 1,200 and 1,500 children a year are born with brain tumors, and more are diagnosed later in life.

The Lawsons plan to donate the experimental medicine, Antineoplastin - paid for with money from a November fund-raiser by WFIR - to another Roanoke boy with a brain tumor, Lawson said.

"I want people to remember that Jonathan was a spirited young boy; he was a fighter," his father said. "He loved people."

\ Donations to the American Brain Tumor Association can be sent to 2720 River Road, Suite 146, Des Plaines, Ill., 60018.

headshot of Jonathan Lawson