New book tells story of Alexa Brown and Clyde cancer cluster

SANDUSKY — The Clyde cancer cluster, and the death more than 10 years ago of a young girl who became the symbol of the deadly disease, is remembered in a new book by a Cleveland TV news reporter. "Is My Child Next? The Alexa Brown Story," by Jonathan Walsh was released Sept. 14 and covers the brief life and 2009 death of Alexa Brown, 11, of Clyde. Other children also died in what became known as the Clyde cancer cluster, but Alexa became the face of the epidemic after her illness was extensively covered by the Sandusky Register and other media outlets. Walsh, 48, a TV news reporter in Toledo at the time and now a reporter for WEWS News 5 in Cleveland, covered the story closely and became close to the Browns. His book's cover image of Alexa was snapped by Wendy Brown, Alexa's mother. Walsh's earnings from sales of the book are being donated to Alexa's Butterflies of Hope, a 501c3 charity that helps families in Sandusky County and the area affected by pediatric cancer. Warren Brown, Alexa's father, told the Register he hasn't read the book yet but read earlier drafts and has seen the cover illustration. "All I had to do was see the front cover and I just broke down," Brown said. "It brings back a flood of memories just looking at the jacket." Alexa became ill in 2006 when she was in the second grade. Walsh's book chronicles her battle with a disease that caused her a great deal of pain and forced her to realize she would likely die young. "One of the things I want people to take away from this is the raw reality of childhood cancer," Walsh said in an interview with the Register. One particularly touching story in the book describes Alexa asking tough questions of Sheryl Conley, a speech therapist who also served as a kind of surrogate grandmother for the girl, as all of Alexa's grandparents had died by the time Alexa became ill. Alexa would ask Conley questions such as "Are you afraid to die?" When Conley asked if Alexas was posing those questions to her parents, Alexa responded, "Oh, I can't talk to them because they cry." "She knew we couldn't handle her asking questions about dying," Warren Brown said. "I was so thankful to Sheryl for being able to talk to her about that stuff." Another anecdote in the book describes the Brown family's desperate journey to Vermont after other treatments failed and Alexa's cancer had spread to her spine. Alexa was supposed to try a promising new drug. After a very painful bone marrow procedure was performed on Alexa, doctors finally looked at results from a new MRI, discovered cancer had spread to numerous places on Alexa's brain, and told the Browns Alexa no longer qualified for the clinical trial. Shortly after the bad news arrived, Alexa bought a birthday present for her older sister, Abby, in a gift shop. She bought the gift for Abby after she had pretty much been told there was no longer any hope and she was going to die, Walsh says. "That's just who she was, constantly thinking about others," he said. Walsh's book describes how the frustrating search for answers to the cause of the cancer cluster never came up with a clear answer. Walsh said he suspects that "someone knows something" and hopes the book will inspire the person to come forward. The book goes into detail about how Alexa's ordeal affected not just her but members of the Brown family, including Warren and Wendy Brown, and Alexa's siblings, sisters Abby and Amanda and her brother, Ethan. Abby, for example, had just started a new job in Florida as a teacher but rushed back home to aid the family when it became clear Alexa was seriously ill. Walsh's chronicle ends in 2010 when Brown's family took her ashes to the family's favorite vacation spot in North Carolina and scattered them on the beach, but Warren Brown provided an update on his family for the Register. Warren Brown, 64, now works as director of the Sandusky County Juvenile Justice Center in Fremont. He and Wendy still live in Clyde, in the same house where Alexa died. Wendy is doing well, Warren Brown said. Abby married, has two children and teaches first grade in Fremont. Amanda is a school nurse in Bellevue and has "found a great Christian guy," Brown said. Ethan is a police detective in Sidney, Ohio, is married with two children and soon will be a captain in the Army Reserve. The death of a child "will either fracture a family or it will cement them," Warren Brown said. "I am so thankful to God it did the latter for us."