A Special Christmas Gift

Raudel Gonzalez, top right, of Ixtlahuacan, Mexico, watched with his father, Salvador, as a prosthesis was prepared for him by Adolf Llamas, above, at Orthomedics in Brea on Tuesday. Raudel, 15, lost his leg to cancer earlier this year. After he took his first steps on the new leg, he took off and shouted, “I can run again!” When he returns to Mexico today, he plans to play basketball.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” his father said to Alan Pryer, the orthotist who fitted Raudel for the leg. The youth was one of four cancer patients brought from Mexico to join four Southern California children stricken with cancer for a week of outings. The trip was financed by contributions raised by the community relations department of the Hollenbeck Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.