Grant Haar is a little champ - at least that is how his mother describes him.

“He’s just been such a good kid,” Stefani Haar said. “He’s been a little slower to recover from his episodes with chemotherapy, but overall his attitude is very good. He is real good with that. He’s a champ.”

Last September when he was 7-months-old, Grant was diagnosed with clear cell sarcoma of the kidney. The 2-pound tumor was successfully removed, along with his kidney. Grant, now 14-months-old, is coming to the end of his chemotherapy.

Grant is doing well. Stefani said he has gotten fatter, which is good. After six-months, he is just getting back to his presurgery weight. Chemotherapy stunts growth during the treatment, Stefani said. He used to be in the 90th percentile for height and weight and now is in the 5th to 10th percentile, but he’ll catch back up when he’s done with it.

With an ecstatic and drawn out “Yes,” Stefani said she and her husband Peter were looking forward to the end of chemo, but other anxieties also come with it.

“Are the upcoming tests going to be clean? Is everything going to be OK? Will we have to go through this again?” All valid questions especially knowing Grant has a 10 percent chance of recurrent cancer in the next four years and a 15 percent chance of having a secondary cancer later in life.

But at least now they can look forward to enjoying the normal parts of growing up. “We’ve been looking forward to swimming and going for walks and just playing outside,” Stefani said.

Besides worrying about Grant’s medical condition, Peter and Stefani also have had to deal with financial burdens for medical and day-to-day living. They moved back to the area from St. Paul shortly after Grant’s birth, expecting to be a two-income family.

Pete works as a heavy equipment technician at Brooks Tractor in West Salem, but Stefani, a social worker by trade, had to quit her job after three weeks to take care of Grant.

“Strained,” is how Stefani describes their financial situation. “I don’t want to make us sound pathetic by any means.”

But they do need help to get through expenses associated with the treatments. They hope an upcoming benefit will help them out.

The benefit will be held at the Holmen American Legion from noon to 6 p.m., Sunday, March 26. The chili and pie supper also will include a silent auction with some great prizes, Stefani said, including a whirlpool suite at the Sparta Super 8, a silver and diamond necklace from Mark Jewelers, an autographed Packers football, Milwaukee Bucks basketball and a baseball from Milwaukee Brewer catcher and West Salem native Damian Miller along with two game tickets. And there will be a lot of little stuff that is nice, too, such as restaurant gift certificates.

Despite the worries, Stefani, Pete and Grant keep going and growing.

“He’s so big now and just started walking,” Stefani said. “He’s gone through so many milestones while he was on chemo. But that puts a little shadow over the fun stuff. His first Christmas and birthday was in the shadow of chemotherapy.”

Those days were beautiful, wonderful anxd great, but there is still the thought of the chemotherapy in the back of the mind, Stefani said. “You want those times to be a pure joy, but there is just a little black cloud over it.”

Contact Tony Nelson at 786-6813 or tony.nelson@lee.net