Lucas Singleton is like most ten-year-old boys. He can't wait to go to summer camp and he's excited to  play his newest PlayStation video game, Harry Potter. What's different about Lucas is that he's a cancer survivor, or as his parents' Shawna and Randy say, "our little cancer  warrior." 

It was Spring 2007, when Shawna knew something wasn't right with her son.

"He started having headaches and migraines, which they thought had to do with attention deficit disorder, but it didn't feel right to me, so finally we brought him down to the Children's hospital."

After an hour long drive from the Singleton's home in Lockhartville, they arrived at emergency. The ER doctor on staff didn't seem too worried about Lucas' headaches, but decided to conduct a CT Scan to make sure everything was alright. The next morning, the Singleton's received the results. Lucas had medulloblastoma-- a brain tumour.

"That was devastating. When they said brain tumour, I thought, 'is he going to die?' and then I started wondering what the rest of his life would be like," says Shawna.

Lucas' tumour was removed immediately. He then spent the next month in the hospital recovering from the side-effects of such intrusive surgery, which included temporary loss of speech and mobility in his left side.  Once he was feeling better, he began his 30-day course of radiation treatment, at the Dickson Centre at the QEII, the regional centre for pediatric radiation therapy.

"The care he received at the Dickson was fantastic. They were very good with him, I think especially because he was a child. They made sure he was taken care of and didn't have to wait," says Shawna.

Lucas adds that after every treatment the radiation technicians would give him a reward. "They would let me choose a toy out of the tickle trunk," he says.

Lucas responded well to radiation treatment and was able to start chemotherapy soon after. About a year after his diagnosis in June 2008, the Singleton's learned that Lucas was cancer free.

"We're two years cancer free, 'Yay'," says Shawna to Lucas. Randy adds that although Lucas is healthy now, they are concerned it will come back.  "We worry every time he gets sick; colds are not colds, headaches are not just headaches and an upset stomach is not an upset stomach."

But Lucas isn't letting the fear of cancer hold him back. This energetic boy, with an infectious smile, is eager to get in his swimming pool to practice his handstands and front crawl.