Today as a 9-year-old, he rollerblades across the kitchen floor at high speeds, grinning ear-to-ear while playing indoor hockey games with his siblings.

With the help of high-tech treatments at the Hershey Medical Center, he's practically beaten the cancer. And thanks to the Four Diamonds Fund, his family hasn't had to pay a cent toward the medical costs.

That means a lot to his parents, Duane and Marilyn, who are raising four children while running a dairy farm in Cochranville, near Lancaster.

"It's just helped in incredible ways," Marilyn said. "It almost means too much to put it into words."

This weekend, the Hersheys will make their fourth trip to the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, from which the Four Diamonds Fund derives about three-fourths of its funding.

Robert's sister, Kacie, 7, has had her bags packed since before New Year's Day in anticipation of the annual Thon trip.

The Hersheys -- Marilyn speculates they might be distant relatives of Milton S. Hershey but "not close enough to get chocolate benefits" -- are the sponsor family of Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority and Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, 328 E. Fairmount Ave.

Sarah Stuppy (senior-life sciences), Thon chair for the sorority, called Robert "one of the most courageous kids I've ever met."

Stuppy remembers fraternity dancers hoisting Robert up, much to his delight, for a wave of crowd surfing at last year's Thon.

But Thon triggers different memories for everyone.

Robert's cousin, Kyle Goodling, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 18 months old -- one month before Robert's diagnosis in 1994.

Through the Make-A-Wish foundation, Robert and Kyle took their families on a vacation to Walt Disney World in 1996.

But Kyle suffered a relapse. In November 1997, at age 5, he died fighting the cancer at the medical center.

Duane's sister, Bev, and her husband, Barry, were Kyle's parents. They also were a Four Diamonds family, but they haven't been back to Thon since Kyle's death.

"Robert didn't cry at the viewing, at the funeral," Marilyn said. "But on (Kyle's) birthday, he cried a lot. . . . He has a very compassionate heart."

Robert has been out of treatment for about a year and continues to improve.

He has to return to the medical center every two months for blood tests, but it's a far cry from the more intense times during his treatment.

Robert's leukemia lead to persistent sinus infections, and he underwent bone reconstruction twice. Several times, Robert had to sit still while a doctor peered up his nasal passages with a painful stainless-steel probe.

Throughout the first three years of the treatment program, Robert went in every three months for a spinal tap to test and treat his spinal fluid.

As a reward for each "spinal day," Marilyn would buy him a gift, like his Rollerblades.

But the first weekend of the diagnosis was one of the most tense.

It took two positive blood tests before Duane and Marilyn could believe Robert had leukemia, and then it took three days for doctors to determine the severity of the cancer.

As Robert began treatment at the hospital, a social worker approached the family with a little paperwork and some comforting words: Don't worry about the money.

It was the Hersheys' first introduction to the Four Diamonds Fund. After a few weeks of initial skepticism, they realized they weren't getting billed for any of the work at the medical center.

And so the family keeps coming back to dance marathon to meet the students who support the Four Diamonds Fund.