They Have Good Reason to Celebrate

Each had faced a different threat. For 4-year-old Sierra Harp of Irvine, it was a rare brain tumor. For 14-year-old Cori Knight of Anaheim, it was leukemia; for 29-year-old Carrie Lee of Mission Viejo, Hodgkin’s disease.

But one thing united the three and brought them to Orange on Sunday to celebrate: surviving cancer. They were joined on a breezy afternoon by hundreds of others for a picnic thrown by supporters of Children’s Hospital of Orange County to mark the 11th annual National Cancer Survivors Day.

“That there’s enough of us to have a party for--that’s what’s so cool,” Lee said, surveying the children, teenagers and adults who gathered in a rose garden at St. Joseph Hospital. They munched hot dogs, slurped frozen lemonade, tossed beanbags and balls for prizes, listened to a four-piece soft-rock band and posed for group photos. They wore yellow buttons, some of which said, “Survivor” and others, “Supporter.”

A similar event was held Sunday in Newport Beach at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

“It’s an opportunity to talk, be together in a positive environment and celebrate the fact that they are still alive,” said Maria Ramsay, a spokeswoman for Hoag. “It’s saying that yes, you can overcome cancer, and you can survive.”

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It has been much in the news as medical researchers continue to search for a cure. The survivors who met in Orange told of receiving the latest treatments, but they also told of the power of stubborn faith.

Lee was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease when she was 15. “When I found out, I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think children get cancer,” she said. Lee spent the better part of her sophomore year of high school in the hospital, receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatment for swollen lymph nodes and a tumor in her chest.

But she went back to school the next year. She is now a working mom with two children: 4-year-old Kendall, a daughter; and 2-year-old Connor, a son. Lee said she overcame her illness on the saying, “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”

Cori Knight has stared down leukemia twice now, and she has no intention of letting it stop her. She was diagnosed with the disease at age 4, treated with chemotherapy and discharged. Three years later, she was found to have a relapse after suffering a back injury during a karate class. But Cori’s cancer is again in remission, after she received a bone marrow transplant from her younger brother, Trevor.

“You’ve got to just say to yourself, ‘I’m surviving,’ ” said Cori, who will enter Troy High School next fall. “Just stay tough. If you’re having the worst day ever--sick, bored out of your mind--you say, ‘You know, it can only get better from here.’ ”

A few weeks shy of her fifth birthday, Sierra Harp isn’t old enough to understand the rare form of cancer that afflicted her two years ago. Doctors called it a primitive neuro-ectodermal tumor, or PNET. But her mother, Sher Harp, said Sierra does know that she doesn’t like hospitals or doctors and would much rather scamper on a lawn with her three older brothers.

Following a successful surgery to remove the tumor and chemotherapy, Sierra is now healthy and expected to enroll in kindergarten in the next school year.

“It just takes a ‘no matter what,’ ” Sher Harp said. “Just the feeling that no matter what, everything’s going to be OK.”