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

DATE: MONDAY, February 20, 1995                   TAG: 9502200088
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BLUE RIDGE BOY'S FIGHT WITH LEUKEMIA ENDS DESPITE CARE

It was time for 4-year-old Andrew Edward Cleveland ``Browns'' Braford to go. His struggle with acute myelogenous leukemia, a cancer of the blood-forming organs, lasted less than a year, but nearly a fourth of his life.

He died at home in his grandmother's arms.

``I was rocking him and singing to him and he just went off to sleep,'' Wanda Welch said. ``For him to have struggled so long and to have gone so peacefully was a blessing.''

Andrew was diagnosed with cancer last summer. After six months of intense chemotherapy, his parents, Lori and Dick Braford of Blue Ridge, made the decision to try to save their son with a bone marrow transplant.

When they took their son to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., for the operation, they knew the chance of complication with an anonymous donor was near 40 percent.

``We just have to believe God is in control,'' Lori Braford told a reporter a few weeks ago. ``We just have to keep praying. And hoping.''

Throughout their struggle, the Brafords were buoyed by their friendship with Gene and Denise Brown, whose son Nathan, also 4, has the same type of cancer. The story of their relationship was featured in a Roanoke Times & World-News story last year.

As of early this month, Nathan was doing well after his bone marrow transplant.

About the same time, Andrew was entering his third troubled month after his operation. Only a few healthy bone marrow cells could be found by doctors after the first month. With his immune system down, fever blisters and a bout with roseola, normally a fairly-mild childhood disease, landed him in intensive care.

Then came the biggest blow: Leukemia was found in his marrow.

When Lori and Dick Braford brought Andrew from Duke University Medical Center back to Community Hospital this month, they did it with some hope. Doctors had told them they didn't know what it meant, but donor cells were still living in Andrew's body.

But the Brafords' hope was short-lived. Andrew lived only two more weeks.

Andrew came home from the hospital on Valentine's Day. He seemed to be doing well. He played with his toys and even tried to feed himself.

Saturday morning, though, his chest began to rattle when he breathed. Dr. Ron Neuberg and a hospice nurse met the Brafords at the hospital. Andrew was treated and sent home.

Saturday afternoon, around 3:45, after a restless day, he drifted off to sleep in his grandmother's arms.

``He's healed now,'' Welch said. ``He's completely whole.''