St. Jude patient Brayden has tackled cancer twice with quiet bravery.

It’s remarkably difficult to describe Brayden without using the word “sweet.” His tender heart and good nature are what you notice first.

“He will cry if we kill a spider,” said his mom, Kelli. “We always have to stop and save turtles from the road.”

And “he is the absolute happiest child you will ever meet. His teacher told me one time that when she's having a bad day, she just looks at Brayden because he's always smiling. He's just this ray of light.”

And yet to say this kid is sweet and happy and leave it at that would be to sell him very short indeed. Brayden, in his equanimity, is like that proverb about still waters. He possesses deep, deep reserves of strength and determination, and has had to draw on them.

“Cancer is hard,” he said. “Cancer makes me feel angry. It doesn't make me act like that. But…like how I feel on just the inside. I'm angry at it.”

The First Day of Kindergarten

In 2018, after some persistent headaches, Brayden was found to have a brain tumor. On what should have been his first day of kindergarten, he underwent surgery to remove it. 

His dad, Leif, recalled their very valid fear of surgical complications, then the relief of seeing Brayden in recovery, tempered by the pain of seeing their son in pain, followed by the elation of learning the surgery went well, erased by the horror of learning it was cancer. He describes their emotional state as “nervous breakdown.”

Diagnosed with medulloblastoma, the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor, Brayden needed further treatment. Leif and Kelli began pulling themselves together to look at options, and they sought a referral to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. Brayden was accepted as a patient at St. Jude because he fit the criteria for SJMB12, a clinical trial which would tailor chemotherapy and radiation based on his risk and the molecular composition of his disease. 

Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food. But more importantly to Leif and Kelli, St. Jude had expertise in treating Brayden’s disease.

When they arrived at St. Jude, additional scans indicated the cancer was also in Brayden’s spine, which made his cancer higher risk. 

After eight long months of treatment, which included chemotherapy and proton therapy, Leif and Kelli were shown Brayden’s pre-treatment scans compared with his end-of-treatment scans. Leif said the early scans of Brayden’s spine “looked like the Rocky Mountains,” there were so many tumors. In the end-of-treatment scans, those mountains were levelled. Brayden showed no evidence of disease.

And in the meantime, Brayden had started kindergarten, as a student in the St. Jude School Program.

Five Years Later

After successfully completing treatment for medulloblastoma, Brayden went home and resumed something close to normal life. 

For five years, his family relished the joy of the everyday. Pushing Brayden on the swing, playing baseball in the backyard, these things became priceless. “Just to be able to go for a walk or sit down and do homework with him, and he's healthy enough to be able to do that,” said his dad. “It's a great time.”

Every few months, Brayden returned to St. Jude for checkups. “St. Jude doesn’t say, ‘Okay, we’ve finished the job, you know, on to the next patient,’” said Leif. “They continue caring and making sure that he’s good. It’s comforting.”

It was during one of these routine checkups at St. Jude that scans revealed something in Brayden’s neck.

“You always know there's the possibility that the cancer can come back, or that another cancer can happen,” said Kelli. “But just, it just devastates you.”

Brayden was now diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Childhood cancer survivors are at an increased risk of developing additional cancers. St. Jude researchers are working to determine which childhood cancer survivors are at greatest risk and to develop treatments that minimize the long-term effects of the treatment while effectively treating the cancer. The fact that this cancer likely arose from his treatment for medulloblastoma only underscores the need for research into more and better treatments for childhood cancers. Studies such as SJLTFU, another St. Jude clinical trial, aim to gather data to evaluate the long-term effects of cancer treatments because researchers know these treatments can lead to a range of other medical complications or new cancers. 

Kelli hopes that with further research, treatments can be found that won't cause these serious side effects. “In a perfect world, kids wouldn't get cancer," she said. “But there also wouldn't be all of these long-term side effects that come up from the treatment itself.”

When they asked if he was scared, Brayden told his parents, “No. I trust
St. Jude.”

Were Leif and Kelli scared? “Yes,” said Kelli, “but we know that he's getting the best treatment that he possibly could.”

With this diagnosis, Brayden underwent surgery to have his thyroid and some lymph nodes removed. And then he received a dose of radioactive iodine, a form of radiotherapy taken orally that would require him to be isolated for a period of time afterward.

When Brayden was a baby, his parents called him Turtle. The way he craned his little neck upward during tummy-time inspired the nickname, and it stuck. Maybe that’s why Brayden insists they stop the car to help turtles cross the road. Or maybe he sees himself in their dogged determination to reach greener grass ahead.

Faced with cancer treatment a second time, Brayden’s attitude was, “I just gotta get through it.” And he did. 

In 2018, Leif said, “My son has amazed me. I’m the proudest father in the world. Just to watch how strong he is.” No one yet knew how much more Brayden would have to face. Imagine how proud Leif is now.

“I think a lot of people can learn from him,” said Leif. “I have.”