Hunter's story

Hunter on the swing


I am happy that you came to see me play on the tire swing. It's in the park, and when I'm there, I can run, jump, climb, bounce and see-saw, too.  If you decided to run, I would chase you like a cougar and I would not stop until you stop.  And I’m really good at tag and hide and seek.  My feet are fast. 

I’m fast, but I’m just Hunter.  That’s what I like to be best.  Sometimes, I jump on the bed in my Spiderman jammies.  And I run around in my red cape.  But, I’m still Hunter, not Spiderman.

  Hunter in Spiderman jammies

What do you like to do? Here are a few of my favorite things: jumping,  playing Thomas the Tank Engine on my tracks, reading books, coloring, rolling Playdoh balls, and watching movies. I have a lot of engines and I have blue tracks, wood tracks, and gray tracks...sometimes I play with my matchbox cars and motorcycles all around the house. I like to watch Thomas the Tank movies and Baby Einstein ones with my baby sister Lilly. What do you think of her sitting in the grocery cart with me? I have a grown up sister and brother, too. They're teenagers, Addy and Sean-Luc.

Hunter's sister Lillie

When I was a baby I was sick, and I'm glad that I don't remember a lot of it.  I was the same size as Lilly is now when I was sick.  When I was almost a-year-and-a-half, I fell down some stairs, and when I went to the hospital and got an xray, everyone learned that I had something inside my head that had no business being there. It was a brain tumor, discovered by accident! The doctors did an operation on my head to take a tumor out.  My mommy said I looked like a bionic boy because in the hospital, the tumor was taken out and some tubes and wires were put in my chest and belly. Some tubes were there so that I could get strong medicine called chemo to get rid of the tumor everyone was talking about. Other tubes were there so I could get food in my belly when my mouth didn't feel like eating, When I had chemo, my mouth got sore, so it was a good thing that one of the tubes went in my belly. That way I could stay healthy, even though I felt pretty sick (that's what my mommy told me).

Hunter when he was sick

Luckily, I’m not sick anymore.  Now, I go to school, and I get to visit with my friends on play dates.  I don’t go to the hospitals everyday, either, only when I need to have an MRI.

Remember all those tubes I had? Well now, I have scars in those places, one on my chest, and another on my belly. My head has a scar on it too, but I’ve never seen it because it’s behind me, so I don't even mind.  Now, I can slide down the slide on my belly and it doesn’t hurt a bit.

Thanks for coming to read my story. Would you like to learn more?

About me                                       About brains                                          About cancer



To the frog ponds
To write to Hunter
To the sitemap

Joan Fleitas, Ed.D., R.N.
Associate Professor of Nursing
Lehman College, CUNY
Bronx, New York 10468

January 28, 2007