SAN CLEMENTE : Friends Rally to Aid Boy With Cancer

Halloween was just around the corner, and 3-year-old Daniel Harberts was looking forward to dressing up as Captain Hook and going on his first trick-or-treating adventure with his parents.

But instead of trick or treating, Daniel ended up in the hospital last year with what would later be diagnosed as a rare form of liver cancer. Life for the San Clemente family has been a nightmare ever since.

“Your whole life just turns around,” said Daniel’s father, Craig. “One moment you’re thinking about Halloween and having fun.

“The next moment . . . ,” he paused, sighing. “It devastated us. There’s nothing you can say. He could have died at any moment.”

The family has not been alone in its struggle. After a year of treatment and many hospital stays, Daniel seems a normal child and does not complain about his illness.

On Sunday, friends, neighbors and local businesses will be host of a carnival from 1 to 6 p.m. at Ocean View Plaza on Camino de los Mares to help raise money for Daniel’s medical bills and to celebrate his upcoming birthday. The carnival will feature games, a clown parade at 3 p.m., rides, a raffle, llamas, face painting, food, puppet shows, coloring contests and more.

Teri Steel, a next-door neighbor who has helped organize the carnival, said the entire community has pitched in to help Daniel. In the past year, community fund-raisers, including the sale of T-shirts reading “Do It For Daniel,” have raised more than $30,000, Steel said.

When chemotherapy caused Daniel to lose a significant part of his hearing several months ago, the San Clemente Lions Club bought him a hearing aid.

“Everyone has been more than willing to help,” Steel said.

Although the family has medical insurance through Craig Harberts’ employer, Southern California Edison, they’re nearing the $1-million cap on the policy. And Daniel has yet to undergo a risky liver surgery to remove his tumor, a procedure that could cost up to $250,000.

“The whole community has just been fantastic,” Craig Harberts said. “To see that happening in this day and age is really heartwarming.”

Daniel, the Harberts’ oldest child, had been healthy until about two weeks after his third birthday on Oct. 18 when he came down with a bout of diarrhea and a low-grade temperature.

Days later on Halloween, Craig and Dorothy Harberts learned that Daniel had a rare form of cancer known as “hepatocellular carcinoma” in about two-thirds of his liver. Making matters worse, doctors discovered the cancer had grown into his heart.

Within days, Daniel underwent open-heart surgery to remove the cancer. Seven days later, he started chemotherapy to shrink the tumor in his liver.

Unable to stand the side effects of chemotherapy, he recently started an experimental procedure at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, only the fourth child in the country to undergo such a treatment, which concentrates medication on a tumor.

For more information on the carnival, contact Steel at (714) 361-5967. Donations can also be sent to the Daniel Harberts Benefit Account at Household Bank, 638 Camino de los Mares, Suite F-140, San Clemente, Calif. 92673.