SHAWN KING

Boy’s dreams: to be a policeman, to have his own bedroom, to be healthy

By DIANNA SMITH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Shawn King’s long, frail body curls like a baby’s, hiding beneath a sheet because the hospital room is so cold.
“He heard he is going to get a blood transfusion today, and he hates that,” Shella Bravo whispers, as her son stares sadly at his mother.
On this November day, Shawn is scared.
Though doctors say the transfusions and the chemotherapy treatments may make him better, Shawn no longer believes they work. Since his diagnosis of a rare bone cancer two years ago, the 11-year-old has hoped and prayed and fought for his health so he can play sports and run and just be a boy again.
He used to tell his mom he’d fight the cancer and promised to grow up to protect her. The doctors, he said, would save him.
But Shawn doesn’t say those things anymore.
The cancer, which began as a tumor in his right leg, has spread through most of his body, invading his back, his arms, even his skull.
He asks his mother if he’s going to die. And though one doctor recently suggested Shawn’s mom call hospice, Shella says she isn’t ready for that.
“You’re going to grow old and be a policeman,” Shella says to Shawn.
Every day he loses weight. Some days he barely speaks. And many nights, the pain is so bad that he rests his head on his mother’s shoulder and cries.
All he wants to do is go to school. He wants to see his friends. He doesn’t want to worry about his dark hair falling out or how strange it feels not to have eyebrows. And he wants his excruciating pain to go away.
Shella tries to be strong for her son. When Shawn is sad, she is there to lift him up. But lately, Shella has needed some lifting up of her own.
She cleans houses and caters here and there, but it isn’t enough to pay for Shawn’s $45,000 worth of medical bills. She gave up her apartment where she lived with Shawn and her 1-year-old daughter. They now squeeze into a bedroom in a relative’s Lake Worth home.
In what free time she has left, Shella desperately searches for clinical trial studies. She recently discovered one in Orlando, and she and Shawn travel there in an old car twice a week. After each drive, Shella wonders how she will afford gasoline again or if her car will even make it down the road.
With the holidays around the corner, she’s struggling with Shawn’s wish list. What he wants the most is his very own bedroom to decorate in a sports theme. He’s been wanting this for so long, but Shella doesn’t know how to give it to him. She can’t afford the rent.
Shella just wants her son to smile. And to laugh. And to feel like a kid again, something Shawn hasn’t felt like in a long, long time.
“I have to do everything I can for him,” Shella says. “I want to keep hope. We can’t just give up.”

SHAWN KING’S WISH

Rent and utility assistance for one year, so the family can focus on Shawn’s treatments and so Shawn can finally have his very own bedroom. A new car or improvements to the car Shella Bravo now drives. Gas and grocery gift cards. A Playstation 3 so Shawn can relax at home. A Nintendo DS and portable DVD player Shawn can use during his travels to Orlando, to help take his mind off of his chemotherapy treatments. A laptop with wireless capability so Shawn’s mom can look for jobs and research more hospitals by Shawn’s side, instead of having to take trips to the library to use the computer.

Nominated by the Pediatric Oncology Support Team of the Child Life Institute, 5325 Greenwood Ave. #301, West Palm Beach, FL 33407 (561) 882-6336

UPDATE

Shawn King now has hope.

You can see it in the smile he wears much more often these days. The 12-year-old boy battling bone cancer now worries more about his Nintendo DS games then the chemotherapy that tires his body.

Since readers learned of Shawn’s story, they’ve donated goodies such as a television set and a Playstation 3 and enough money to help Shawn’s mom, Shella Bravo, put a down payment on an apartment rental so Shawn can finally have his own room.

But the most surprising gift is sitting in their Lake Worth driveway.

Palm Beach Kennel Club President Pat Rooney Jr. bought the family a new white 2008 Chrysler Pacifica, purchased at Arrigo Dodge in West Palm Beach. He donated it on behalf of his employees so Shawn could be comfortable during his long drives to Orlando, where he’s part of a clinical trial study. The Pediatric Oncology Support Team of the Child Life Institute, which nominated Shawn, will help pay for car insurance.

Bravo says, “God bless you,” to those who have helped make her son’s life so much brighter this year.

This Christmas, Shawn wished for many things, but the one thing he whispered in Santa Claus’ ear is that he hoped to live through the holiday so his mom could have a merry Christmas.

Turns out, Shawn’s wish came true, along with many, many more.

“I see a change in Shawn,” said Barbara Abernathy of POST. “He was feeling hopeless but now he’s living life more. He’s engaged more. It’s been so phenomenal.

“There’s so little we can do for these kids,” Abernathy said through tears. But the community has come together and made Shawn King smile - and that is more than she could have hoped for.

UPDATE Jan. 22, 2009

Obituary: Shawn King, 11, fought bone cancer for 2 years

By DIANNA SMITH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Shawn King knew he was dying.

So in the last few weeks of his life, he said goodbye.

He told loved ones he would miss them. He asked to be buried with his toy cars. And he asked his mom, Shella Bravo, to take special care of his 2-year-old sister. At 11 years old, though sick and so frail, Shawn still considered himself the man of the house.

“He said to make sure the door is always locked at night and to make sure his sister doesn’t eat sweets,” Bravo recalls. “He was very brave.”

Before Shawn died on Friday, he was still trying to fight the bone cancer that had been ailing him for two years. But Shawn lost his eyesight. His right lung stopped working. And on Friday, his mother watched him take his last breath.

The public showered Shawn with gifts in December after he was featured in The Palm Beach Post’s Season to Share. His family received a new car. The money let the family to move into an apartment where Shawn finally had his own room. On days he had energy, he insisted on decorating it himself.

The family took one last trip together to New York City, so Shawn could watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve. The last few days of his life, Bravo says he thought he was still in New York because he had such a wonderful time.

Though Shawn received countless gifts for Christmas, his most important wish was to live through the holidays so his mom could have a merry Christmas.

He saw it as his job to protect his mother as long as he could. And Bravo is convinced he is still doing just that. But now, he’s doing it from above.

“He’s in heaven right now,” Bravo says. “He’s watching his sister and me.”