'A day at Fenway for Bray' planned to help Swansea teenager with leukemia

SWANSEA – Brayden Cabral is not backing down in this fight. In his room at Boston Children's Hospital, Brayden plays Brayden.

“He is doing great!” his mother, Kelly Rose DiGiammo, wrote in a Facebook post Monday morning. “His treatment is proceeding as planned by his team. He feels good, he eats, sleeps, kicks me in chess, fights brotherly with Chace and tests. [father] Kyle Cabral's patience with Legos.

Cabral, 13, a seventh-grader at Joseph Case High School, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. A sports lover, Cabral in December and then in January felt slow, sometimes downright ugly. The usually fast youngster became the last to cross the finish line. He was diagnosed and treated for Influenza A, but that ultimately didn't turn out to be the real villain.

He developed a stye on his eyelid. The stye has grown. The surroundings swelled. Cabral couldn't open his eyes. A trip to the emergency room at Charlton Memorial Hospital was soon followed by a trip to Boston Children's Hospital where, on February 25, the diagnosis of leukemia was made.