Eight-year-old Hunter DeBerry had to mature faster than most children her age.

She knows the dosage for each of the five medications she has to take three times a day.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette
	Hunter DeBerry, 8, is ill with Crohn's disease. When she needed a $10,000 procedure and her mother, who had just started a new job, did not yet have health insurance, the Free Care Fund offered assistance.

She is frustrated that she sometimes can't play with her friends or has to stop in the middle of a game to take her meds.

But Hunter is grateful she can enjoy the Three Musketeers bars that became her favorite candy bar after she had to eliminate Snickers from her diet. And she loves to dance to country and rock 'n' roll music.

After battling with multiple gastroenterological problems for much of her young life, Hunter is receiving the care she needs to grow into a healthy adult, thanks in part to the Free Care Fund at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Hunter spoke from a bed in a West Virginia hospital after undergoing emergency surgery at the end of last month to remove another section of her bowel. She was surrounded by her family while she talked about her hobbies and career goals.

"I want to be a chef or a vet," she said.

Hunter already has experience with animals. She helps out in the gift shop at Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo near her Kingwood, W.Va., home. She also gets to feed some of the animals -- including a baby grizzly bear, her current favorite.

"She's humorous and she's got a good attitude all the time," Hunter's mother, Sherry DeBerry, said. "She knows all her medication, and she's very involved in her treatment. I just want her to start leading a normal life, for things to subside a little bit."

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette
	Hunter DeBerry, 8, relaxes in the waiting room at Children's Hospital with her mother, Sherry DeBerry, left, and grandmother, Sharon Wagner. Hunter has Crohn's disease, and her mother has brought her from their Kingwood, W.Va. home for treatment.

Hunter's problems began when she was in preschool and complained of constant stomach pains. She suffered from frequent bouts of diarrhea and blood in her stool. She also did not gain weight for three years and remained around 40 pounds. Yet doctors were unable to determine the cause of the child's discomfort.

Sherry DeBerry said one doctor even suggested Hunter was faking the stomach aches to stay home from school.

"Nobody ever listened," DeBerry said. "Hunter was anemic at one time, and they passed it off as her not eating right."

After years of appointments and growing frustration, a doctor in West Virginia finally diagnosed Hunter with Crohn's disease in December and referred her to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment. At the time, there were no pediatric gastroenterologists in West Virginia.

Crohn's disease causes inflammation or ulceration of the digestive tract. It is most common near the end of the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine.

Hunter had to give up some favorite foods, including the Snickers bars, which contain peanuts, and corn on the cob because the textures can scrape her bowel.

"She's a very sweet kid," said Dr. Mona Harpavat, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Children's. "She asked a lot of questions, a lot of good questions. Hunter shared with me some of her concerns. I can honestly say she's one of my favorite patients."

Sherry DeBerry, a labor and delivery nurse at Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood, had just started her new job and was on her 90-day probation period without health insurance when Hunter was first diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

One of the first procedures Hunter needed was an endo- scopy that costs $10,000. DeBerry worried that her daughter would not receive the care she needed because she lacked the funds to pay for Hunter's treatment.

That's when the Free Care Fund stepped in.

The Free Care Fund for years has enabled hundreds of thousands of children to receive medical care that their families otherwise might not have been able to afford.

"The Free Care Fund is important to the people we serve," Ronald L. Violi, president and CEO of Children's, said. "Parents don't have to think about, 'Can I afford to take this kid to the hospital?' That shouldn't be a thought. If you show up here, it doesn't matter where you're from, we take care of them. That's our job."

KDKA-TV, KDKA Radio and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette make up the Free Care Friends, whose activities, such as the publication of Kids Extra, contribute to the fund.

DeBerry said the fund helped the family avoid having to take out a loan and possibly delay treatment.

Hunter was prescribed several medications, but because of the severity of her illness, she had to undergo surgery to remove 18 to 20 inches of bowel.

Once DeBerry's insurance benefits went into effect, it was discovered that the plan would not cover Hunter's care in Pittsburgh because it was out-of-network. The family applied for the Children's Health Insurance Program in West Virginia, which alleviated much of the costs of her treatments at home. The DeBerrys still travel two hours to Pittsburgh for Hunter's appointments every three months.

"If we wouldn't have gone through the [Free Care Fund]," DeBerry said, "I don't know what we would have done. It helped Hunter get her procedure done when she needed it done."