Last month, a Waterdown District High School (WDHS) student was awarded the first ever Jonathan Brown Memorial Award.
The student, Keida Eastlake-Keller, was given the award for her dedication to her studies while going through a personal hardship.
Jonathan, who also went by Jonny, was a former WDHS student who passed away from cancer on October 15, 2021 at age 19.
Jonny’s parents, Claudia and Allan Brown, attended the 2024 WDHS commencement ceremony in June, where they presented the award and $1,500 bursary, honouring their son and his memory.
“Everybody was aware that Jonny was sick, nobody really was aware of what he had to go through and what he accomplished,” Claudia said.
“We wanted to reward and recognize these young kids for battling through, not always just their own health issues but their issues in their lives, and persevering.”
Jonny’s Story
Jonny grew up in Carlisle with his brother and sister, Michael and Rachel.
Claudia said her son was a fun and happy kid who loved playing hockey with his tight-knit group of friends.
“Jonathan, he was a very good hockey player, but he more loved it as a way to be with his friends,” she said.
When he was 17, Jonny tripped in his family’s garage, and after his fall he told his mom his back was hurting. After his fall in February, the pain in his back persisted, but his parents thought it was likely because Jonny was very active.
“He kept saying it was in his back and then it was his leg and he wasn't really able to sort of define where the pain was,” Claudia said.
In July 2019, Jonny submitted a blood test that showed high inflammation and doctors said they had found something on his femur. At first, his parents thought he may have fractured his femur.
But then came the news, just weeks before he was to start Grade 12: Jonny was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
Doctors determined the cancer was localized to his femur. As Jonny began chemo, his family and WDHS made arrangements for him to begin class online for his final year of high school.
In November 2019, Jonny had a major surgery on his hip, followed by nine rounds of chemo. Claudia said he would spend a week as an in-patient at the hospital during his chemo treatments, then two weeks at home.
Dedication to school
Through all of it, Jonny kept up with his school work, with the goal of getting into university at the end of his battle with cancer.
“I have pictures of Johnny doing his homework in the hospital, hooked up to chemo,” said Claudia.
While Jonny was in the hospital, WDHS math teacher Larry Timms became his tutor.
“He was a very brave individual. He never once complained,” Timms said, adding he remembers Jonny being witty and dedicated.
“He was obviously going through a lot.”
Timms said Jonny stayed focused on school and on getting into university. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and other students had to finish out their school year online, like Jonny had been doing for almost a year.
Claudia said when school went online for everyone, she saw how hard it was on many kids to be isolated from others, and gained a better understanding of the strength her son had.
“We really looked at it from a different perspective. We certainly had sympathy for every single one of these kids, but we recognize that there are kids out there who are persevering in the face of adversity, who have greater challenges than just having to maybe do school online," she said.
"We really wanted to recognize them,” she said.
Just before his 18th birthday, Jonny finished chemo and submitted his applications to university.
Claudia said she can’t remember all of the schools and programs Jonny was accepted into, but he chose to go ahead with entering the Math program at the University of Waterloo for the fall of 2020.
Allan said his son was very good at math. “He was very logical,” his dad said, but added he still wonders if Jonny missed out on a chance to explore his options while he battled cancer.
But six months after Jonny completed his chemo, his cancer came back. He had to leave university and return to treatments. After an 11-month battle, Jonny passed away on October 15, 2021.
A room for Jonny
In the years since his passing, the Brown family has become involved in charity work to honour Jonny and his life.
One of the ways they have done this is with the Jonathan Brown Memorial Award, which both Claudia and Allan presented this year.
Claudia said she read the essays submitted by WDHS students for her son’s award, but was not part of the selection process. While she could not say what Eastlake-Keller’s essay was about, due to student privacy rules, she said she is very proud of her.
“To meet Keida and to hear about her future and see how, you know, how positive she is with the difficult kind of experience she's had to go through in the last few years, and how resilient she is. It's fulfilling, it's rewarding in a way,” Claudia said.
The Brown family is now focused on their next charity event, which is a gala in Jonny’s honour coming up on Nov. 9 called the Jonny’s Gold Ribbon Gala.
Money raised at the event will go toward the Keaton House Children’s Hospice that is being built in Dundas.
McMaster Children’s Hospital is one of the only hospitals in Ontario without a children’s hospice; Claudia said a facility like Keaton House would have made a difference in Jonny’s final days.
“He had to die in a ward, and it wasn't a palliative ward. It wasn't an ideal situation and Jonny’s not the only one,” she said.
And having a teen room, where older patients like Jonny can stay, could mean all the difference to a family like theirs.
“It's really important that we do this for our community,” she said.
