For Nick Mendez's family, this is normal; but it isn't holding the 10-year-old cancer survivor back. Never mind that he's working with a personal trainer to build up the strength that his treatment sapped—he likes to play Nerf guns with his friends and looks forward to joining a soccer team in the fall. While he missed most of his fourth-grade year at Resurrection School due to his time in the hospital, he simply found his old desk waiting for him when he got back.

"I guess people treat me a little nicer," Nick says.

Nick was diagnosed last year with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that attacks the sinus area; but he has entered remission and he has been cancer-free for nearly six months. However, Nick lost his left eye as a toddler to another form of cancer, retinoblastoma, and now sports a artificial eye. The reoccurrence has kept the disease at the forefront of the minds of his family.

But the Mendezes have funneled their energy into making sure everyone with these rare forms of cancer has the same hopeful future—Nick has raised $140,000, most of it for cancer research, through Resurrection's Walk-A-Fun. And following his recent trip to Walt Disney World courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Nick served as a Make-A-Wish "poster child" at a recent San Jose fundraiser.

"Resurrection is a small school, but they support us as if we were family," says Nick's mother, Tammy. "His classmates were always so happy." It was that support that inspired the Mendez family to participate in the school's annual Walk-A-Fun in April to raise money for the National Children's Cancer Foundation—and give Resurrection a share as well. "Nick wanted to give 25 percent back to the school," says Anne Crowley, development coordinator at Resurrection, adding that the money will go toward refurbishing the bathrooms because, by Nick's request, every student can benefit.

The family's goal was originally to raise $15,000 for the foundation, which focuses on cancers classified as "orphan."

"Because so few kids get them, they just don't get as much funding," Tammy says. Family members and friends pledged a certain amount for each lap that Nick completed in the Walk-A-Fun, but the total dollar amount quickly spiraled upwards when local supporters faxed forms across the country.

"The response was overwhelming," says Nick's dad, Michael. "We were originally hoping for $1,000 a lap for 15 laps, but everyone put out the word." Additionally, Alex and Cathy Mendez, Nick's uncle and aunt, matched every dollar that Nick raised. The end result was a lucrative donation—and Nick completing 10 more laps than expected.

It also marked another special occasion—on the day of the Walk-A-Fun in 2003, Nick entered the hospital for the initial treatment of his rhabdomyosarcoma. It was the beginning of a scary time for the Mendez family. Over the next months, Nick would lose 25 percent of his body weight and advance to the third stage of the disease, which is one step below the most serious.

His family kept him company in his hospital room at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, where he passed the time by playing card games and watching scary movies. Michael says some of the titles Nick enjoys, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, would normally give him pause. "But there's really nothing scarier than cancer," Michael says.

While the radiation made Nick's hair fall out and zapped his taste buds, he still looked forward to the day when he'd get it all back again. "I kept watching the Food Network," he says. "The recipes all looked so good."

Once Nick weathered the worst, he was able to come home from the hospital, but never stayed too far away. Tammy is a nurse at Lucile Packard and was able to keep supplies on hand to help with her son's treatments, but often had to scoop Nick up and take him back to Stanford.

"We were so used to the routine," she says. "He knew exactly what to expect at the next step." Indeed, Nick can rattle off the multisyllabic drug names that he knows all too well and impressed his doctors with his knowledge. "He was very involved with his own care," Tammy says. "But he would also pretend to be asleep when he didn't want to talk to his doctors."

Nick now has to continue with regular checkups even though he has since passed five months in remission. The reoccurrence of cancer in the same general area indicates that Nick may be genetically predisposed to cancer, though his family history suggests otherwise. "To have a second primary tumor in this way—the doctors said they had never statistically seen something like this," Michael says.

The other members in Nick's immediate family haven't been similarly affected. Nick's older brother, Joey, just finished his seventh-grade year at Resurrection and says that the regular pressures of adolescence were magnified with his anxiety over his brother's condition. The two are close, so Joey's happy that Nick is available for video games and hanging out. "It's good to have him back home," Joey says.

While Nick came home in January, he still wasn't ready to go back to school. His parents turned to the public school system for help—the Cupertino Union School District in their area—which provided a tutor. Nick went back to school in the beginning of February, but even then, cancer wasn't far from his mind.

Maggie Naughten, Nick's first-grade teacher who had been diagnosed with cancer several years ago, died over Memorial Day weekend. Crowley says Nick was the first student to visit Naughten, bearing get-well cookies, and he gave her a hat that was specially made for the Walk-A-Fun. The Mendez family honored her by walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life on June 26 in Los Altos.

On Father's Day, Nick also attended a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation at Maggiano's Little Italy Restaurant at Santana Row, where he was the "Wish Child."

The increased attention is just one sign of how the cancer experience has affected Nick. "I know myself better, and it made me think before I act," he says. "Sometimes I take too long."

His mother agrees that Nick isn't the normal 10-year-old.

"He has the soul and the wisdom of a much older person," Tammy says.

That may be true, but Nick also knows how to be a kid. The Halloween before last, he had a unique idea for a costume. When he went around trick-or-treating, he carried something in his hand—his own fake eye.

Nick's family maintains a website with updates on his condition at www.nickrocks.us.