FRIENDS RAISING MONEY FOR YOUNG CANCER PATIENT'S FAMILY

SCOTT CITY Mo. -- "Please pray for B.J.," reads the sign in front of the Scott City fire station. It's just one of about a dozen signs that line the city's main street offering support to the family of this young and very sick resident.

B.J. Bradley, the 2-year-old son of Billy and Niki Bradley of Scott City, has neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer that has caused tumors to grow throughout B.J.'s small body. Since B.J. began experimental chemotherapy to fight the cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital May 7, the family has been staying in Memphis, either at the hospital or Ronald McDonald House.

"The doses of medicine are so high that he has to stay here," said Niki Bradley in a phone interview from B.J.'s room at St. Jude. "We have to stay here with him. In order to do that, we can't work."

The employers of Billy and Niki, Ferrell Mobile Homes and Gary and Company Hair Designers, respectively, are holding their jobs for them, but right now the family has no income. So friends have set up a fund for the Bradley family and are organizing several fund-raisers to help pay bills while B.J. is undergoing cancer treatments.

"The money will be used to pay utility bills and house payments while Niki and Billy stay with B.J.," said Becky Frey, Billy's aunt, who noted that B.J.'s family is not being charged for treatments at St. Jude but is incurring other expenses while they stay in Memphis. "We want to make sure they have a place to come home to when they do get to come home."

Frey said there has been a huge outpouring of support in Scott City, where Billy and his parents, Pat and Gordon Bradley, live and from Chaffee, where Niki is from and where her parents, Walter and Maxine Scott live.

"People wanted to know what they could do to help," Frey said. "This is a way for their friends to help."

Any money left over after B.J.'s treatment is completed, which could take 10 to 12 months, will be donated to St. Jude, said Pat Bradley, B.J.'s grandmother.

"The staff at St. Jude has been so wonderful," Pat Bradley said. "There is no where else in the world where patients are treated like that."

B.J. began complaining that his legs hurt in February, Pat Bradley said. His pediatrician here referred him to doctors in St. Louis, who discovered the tumors caused by the neuroblastoma. But by the time they diagnosed the cancer, it had already spread throughout his body.

"It's called the masquerader because the symptoms appear to be everything but cancer," Pat Bradley said.

B.J. was accepted into an experimental chemotherapy treatment at St. Jude, where doctors give him about a 40 percent chance to recover from the cancer.

"B.J. knows he's sick," Pat Bradley said. "But he's too small to understand just how sick."

Niki Bradley said the fund-raising drive allows the family to concentrate on B.J.

"He has to be our main concern right now," she said.

Pat Bradley said the support she's seen for the family, from the signs to the donations to the fund-raisers, has been wonderful.

"It's taken so much pressure off the family," she said. "Thank you just doesn't seem adequate to express how grateful we are."

Upcoming events

Events to raise money for the family of 2-year-old cancer patient B.J. Bradley include:

A benefit today at Roc's Roadhouse in Cape Girardeau that includes a fish fry at 1 p.m., a dart tournament at 4 p.m. and a raffle of donated items during the evening.

On June 8, members of the Bethany Baptist Youth Group will bag groceries for donations at Country Mart in Jackson.

A bake sale will be held June 10 at the Chaffee IGA and at Dacus Discounts.

A benefit dinner/dance will be held June 24 at the VFW Hall in Scott City. There will be drawings for donated prizes.

Donations can also be sent to the B.J. Bradley Cancer Fund at Union Planters Bank, 2400 Main St., Scott City.

The fund is to help make house and utility payments while B.J.'s parents stay with him during his cancer treatment. Any money remaining in the fund will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.