Its an image Angie Lawn said shed never forget.

It was May of 2013, and she was at her 19-year-old sons funeral. PJ had just died after complications related to leukemia. The day was a blur, and she was distraught as she walked out of the service and into the parking lot.

On the periphery of the crowd at the edge of the parking lot was this long line of La Salle boys all standing with their jackets, very respectfully, with their hands folded, she recalled. They were some of the last to leave.

A year later, Angie and her family, who live in Wyndmoor, near La Salle College High Schools campus, are organizing a bone marrow donor drive at Springfield Township High School May 31 in honor of PJ.

Angie described her son as a brainiac who loved writing and computer science. He found pleasure in comic books, movies, TV shows, games like Monopoly and a good cheesesteak, she said. He played guitar and piano, and he was skilled at doing imitations and making people laugh.

He took very little for granted, partly because of the cancer, but partly because thats just who he was, she said.

PJ was 12 years old when he was first diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells.

Angie remembered they were going to get ice cream, and PJ didnt want any because he said his chin was bothering him. To be cautious, they went to the doctor, and a blood test determined it was acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

At that point, PJ was just about to head to St. Genevieves for the seventh grade, but instead he was tutored at CHOP as an inpatient that year. The doctors decided to try a bone marrow transplant, but neither Angie nor her husband, Patrick, were a match for PJ. Siblings have a slightly better chance at being a match, so the Lawns other children were tested: Shannon, a senior now at Springfield Township High School; Sean, a sophomore at the high school; and Owen, a seventh-grader at St. Genevieves currently.

Shannon was 10 years old when she was determined to be a match for her older brother. Continued...

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Wyndmoor family remembers son with bone marrow drive at Springfield Township High School

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