KIDS WHO ARE OLDER, SMARTER, TOUGHER.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

For a change, there were no tears, only laughter. No pain, only smiles. No sadness, only joy.

Many of the more than 300 children and their families celebrating National Cancer Survivors' Day in Griffith Park on Saturday had come to celebrate.

They had come to play games, to have a picnic and to party. To talk about life and their bright futures.

They had beaten cancer.

But they had one important thing to do first: take the hands of little kids still fighting their cancer and tell them not to give up.

Tell them to fight it, like they've never fought anything before in their young lives - then move on to the future. Just like they were doing now.

Older, smarter and tougher. Much tougher.

It's all right there in the essays that Dr. Clarke Anderson carried with him Saturday to announce the annual college scholarship recipients from the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Moving, powerful essays from high school seniors headed for college after leaving cancer behind.

At first, the pediatric oncologist didn't see the theme that ran through all of the stories, but then it hit him, he says. Something so obvious, so true.

The cancer that had robbed these kids of much of their innocence and youth had also given them something many of their peers lacked: an incredible strength of character and determination to succeed in life.

``If you can beat cancer, what obstacles in life can't you beat?'' Anderson asks.

Not many, doc. Not many, at all.

Cancer gives you an outlook on life that differs from that of your friends, 17-year-old Tonya Pan says. Two years - and two months of chemotherapy - will do that.

``I got a second chance, and I'm going to make the best of it,'' says this pretty girl who will be attending the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the fall.

Alex Lai is moving on to college feeling like the luckiest kid alive.

``My family gave up everything to move to the United States so I could get the best treatment,'' he says. ``In the moments when I felt most fearful and hopeless, I kept telling myself to hang on because I could not let my loved ones down.

``I cannot ever repay what my family has done for me, but I can work hard and succeed to prove that the tears they shed were not wasted. I cannot predict what will happen in the future, but I know I will continue to step up to whatever challenge I may face.

``That's what battling leukemia taught me,'' Lai said.

Powerful feelings from a 17-year-old. Part of that inner strength and toughness that starts young when you have cancer.

The kids in 7-year-old Kai Bey's school in Santa Clarita Valley call her ``Bossy Betty,'' says her mother, Cynthia Bey.

``I see it in my daughter - she's more mature and self-composed than the other kids,'' Bey says. ``Tougher because she's spent so much time being different, being in pain, having no hair.''

You grow up fast when you get cancer at age 4 and spend the next two years undergoing chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants.

Cary Rosoff sees the same thing in his 5-year-old daughter, Danielle. A strong will and mind - but in a good way, says the Calabasas father.

Again, you grow up fast when cancer attacks you at 14 months, and you spend the next year undergoing three operations and eight painful rounds of chemotherapy while the other girls your age are playing with dolls.

Linda Mangrobang never thought she would see the day she could say the word ``cancer'' in a sentence that made her smile, but that day was Saturday.

Her 17-year-old son, Greg, was 2 when cancer struck. For the next six years, the kid went through hell to beat it.

``Sometimes he'll come home nervous about a test he has to take at school the next day,'' Linda says. ``I tell him, 'Honey, you beat cancer. You went through two spinal taps and a dozen surgeries.

``A school test is a piece of cake.' ''

There were no tears on National Cancer Survivors' Day, only laughter. No pain, only smiles. No sadness, only joy.

Some great kids - older, smarter and tougher - celebrated life.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Ryan Hamilton Brown, 6 1/2, of Simi Valley, a survivor of childhood cancer, is all smiles as he rides the train at Griffith Park on Saturday, during National Cancer Survivors' Day. Backing him up is his mom, Sherry.

Joel P. Lugavere/Special to the Daily News