SURVIVOR POWER

SHELLY LEACHMAN, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

December 21, 2005 12:00 AM

The sun has just set. Thin clouds creep across a darkening sky above a small, white Spanish-style home in Ventura. Christmas lights click on -- colored lights around the windows, white lights near the roof. Red cement stairs lead to the front door. On the top step, in white paint, a child's handwriting reads, "HUNTER SMITH."

Hunter himself, 6, is first to answer the door, followed quickly by sister Faith, 2. Both children are blond-haired, but Faith's eyes are a bright, piercing blue; Hunter's are more subtle.

"That's my skateboard," Hunter announces proudly, pointing to the green-and-black board propped against the wall. "It's a Tony Hawk."

If he were the type, the kid could brag about a lot bigger things than a skateboard. Like his comeback from cancer, which at one point had his heart racing 180 beats per minute and left him "30 minutes away from a massive cardiac," said dad Spencer Smith. "He had no red blood cells left."

That was just after Hunter's third birthday. Three years later, he's nearing his Jan. 26 final dose of chemotherapy, Mr. Smith said, and has as much energy as you'd expect from a 6-year-old -- a lot.

His spirits are high, too, as are those of his family, thanks to his recovery and the help they've received along the way. Some of that came courtesy of the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, which includes the Smiths in its social events and has given them a trip to Sea World, toys for Hunter and, most recently, a voucher for a free Christmas tree.

One of two area charities picked as beneficiaries of the News-Press Holiday Fund, the foundation provides financial aid and moral support to families of kids treated for cancer at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Hunter spent a lot of time at Cottage in the early days of his leukemia, which "was misdiagnosed at least three times," said Mr. Smith. Suffering a chronic cough and uncharacteristic weakness and fatigue, Hunter was prescribed antibiotics, and his parents were told not to worry. Still their son remained pale, pasty and listless.

Finally, after a night when Mr. Smith said Hunter was "clingy, feverish, panting like a dog and his heart was just racing," they tried another doctor and demanded answers. They got one "that was surreal," he said. "The doctor started getting this really weird look on his face, and I remember he said something about cancer. Our world had just been rocked."

Rushed to Santa Barbara on a Friday, Hunter had surgery on Saturday and by Monday had begun aggressive chemotherapy.

"We asked the doctors, 'Is he out of the woods?' " Mr. Smith recalled. "They said, 'Yes, but he can still see the trees.' "

Mr. Smith said his son's cancer has just a 5 percent chance of recurring. And the scariest challenge he's faced lately is some bullying at school.

"I told him, 'Dude, you're the toughest, strongest, most brave boy that I know,' " Mr. Smith said. " 'Next time they bug you, lift up your shirt, show them your porto-cath and tell them you get big needles stuck into you.' "

"He did it, and the bullying stopped," mom Kristina continued. "Once he found his power, it gave him confidence and validated what he's been through. And that was just awesome."