"That child has been my world," Kristen A. LaBrie said of her son Jeremy. LaBrie was charged with child endangerment. (FAMILY PHOTO) The Beverly mother accused of withholding cancer treatment from her young autistic son broke her silence yesterday,...

The Beverly mother accused of withholding cancer treatment from her young autistic son broke her silence yesterday, saying she has been devoted to the child since his birth and lashing out at her former husband for his decision to stop chemotherapy and not try a bone-marrow transplant.

"That child has been my world," said Kristen A. LaBrie in an hourlong phone interview yesterday. Instead of giving Jeremy Fraser's father custody, she said, she would have preferred that the boy be placed "in a medical foster home, because at this time there is still a chance that my son's life can be saved. . . . Without [chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant], there is a zero percent survival rate. With those things, there is a 15 percent survival rate. And to me, 15 is higher than zero, and that is my baby."

She would not comment on why she allegedly interrupted her son's treatment under the advice, she said, of her lawyer, Kevin James of Danvers. James did not return a call yesterday.

LaBrie said she does not know how she will reconcile her feelings if her son dies.

"I guess I'm not going to answer that question," she said. "It would be too emotional of an answer. As a mother, this is a child, an autistic, very sick child who needs assistance with eating, with walking, with breathing, assistance with everything. And I do not see it as a burden, but as my life. Clearly there is no sense of relief from thinking about that not being...
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