Since Penn State student Brian Medford was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 10, friends say he held his head up high and kept a smile on his face until the last moments of his life.

Medford, a 20-year-old sophomore, died late Tuesday night after a brief relapse with the disease he has battled since he was young.

"[He was] always laughing, smiling and making everyone else laugh," Chris Robostello, a close friend, said. "He was caring; he'd do anything for me."

Robostello, a junior business major at Penn State Altoona College, said he first met Medford in second grade, and they continued their friendship even after they went to different colleges.

Still dealing with his loss, he and Medford's family and friends were "hanging in there," Robostello said.

After Medford was first treated at a young age, he went into remission for nearly a decade. In the fall of 2005, routine blood work showed Medford's leukemia had returned.

A close friend at Penn State, Peggy Schoening (sophomore-life science), said Medford went home for his scheduled monthly chemotherapy treatment and didn't come back for the rest of the semester.

"The last time I saw him was after a biology exam," she said. "I knew he was getting worse though; he looked pastier and like he hadn't slept in a month."

Schoening said Medford, who loved the TV show M*A*S*H and '80s music, lived on the floor above her in Hoyt Hall.

They also shared the same major.

"We spent a lot of time studying together," she said. "We had a friendly competition going on ... he was always better at pulling all-nighters."

In late December 2005, family and friends organized a blood drive and bone marrow typing to attempt to find a match willing to donate life-saving bone marrow.

Dave Ma (junior-civil engineering) said he knew Medford since high school.

They also lived together in State College before Medford had to leave for treatment.

"He was a great guy overall, nothing negative about him," Ma said.

Schoening said she and her friends baked him cookies and sent him several care packages throughout the semester.

"He said he always hid the cookies from his family," she said. "I wish he would just be OK and be able to come back and we could study together."

A funeral for Medford will be held 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Christ Lutheran Church in Millvale.