CHOC Market

Connor O’Brien of Buena Park woke up Easter Sunday three years ago with a stomachache. Two days later, his parents were told he had a malignant abdominal tumor.

He spent most of the year in Children’s Hospital of Orange County. He lost his hair due to radiation treatment but never felt like covering up with a baseball cap.

Until recently.

Connor, 8, whose cancer is in remission, was one of 15 former and current cancer patients of CHOC who modeled for an upbeat fashion show at the hospital in Orange. The kids wore baseball caps, T-shirts and jackets--a new line of merchandise from the restaurant chain, Mimi’s Cafe. All sale profits will go to CHOC, where more than a million children have been treated since it opened in 1964.

What did Connor like in the show? “The jacket. It was leather, the color of a green beetle,” he says. “The jacket was way too big, but I fit perfectly into the shirt.”

What didn’t he like? “Nothing.”

And what about the girls checking you out, like that? “Nope. But my mom was clapping really hard.”