Six-year-old Reyna Arevalo has a special weapon. She has a bionic leg, and she is not afraid to use it.

Reyna, a first-grader at Fremont Elementary School in Salinas, kicks out her prosthetic leg — the one she calls "her robot" — to demonstrate how she can run and jump, and even fend off children who annoy her.

"When somebody makes me upset, I wish I was a wrestler or something," she said Tuesday in the small garage where she lives with her parents and sister.

But then she smiles and shakes her head.

"I have never done anything like that," she said. "I just think about it sometimes."

There's no doubt that Reyna is a fighter, but not the kind who throws jabs and punches. In March 2004, the feisty little girl was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and four months later her left leg was amputated at the knee.

And yet neither the loss of a limb, nor hair, nor the rounds of chemotherapy has knocked her down. She has remained a smiling bundle of energy who inspires teachers, classmates and strangers to cheer her on in her fight against cancer.

"Reyna is so motivated to come to school," said Lucy Vasquez, outreach coordinator for Fremont Elementary School. "She feels very accepted and we all keep an eye out for her."

Last year, on one of her usual playful afternoons, Reyna fell on her knees from the couch in the family's tiny living quarters. She began limping, and her mother Maria Vega took her to a chiropractor. The chiropractor told Vega the girl would have to see a specialist. Doctors found tumors on her leg, and she was diagnosed with cancer in the bones.

Reyna started chemotherapy treatment at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

Her father, Noe Arevalo, abandoned his work as a strawberry harvester in July after learning that the cancer was back, this time in Reyna's lungs, believing it was pesticides that could be causing his daughter's illness. He is being trained as a restaurant worker, but still hasn't found a full-time job.

Vega used to harvest strawberries as well, but she stopped working when she had difficulties finding day care for her two daughters.

For the past two years, the family has lived in a garage in Salinas, a shed cramped with two bunk beds, a refrigerator, a stove, a china cabinet and a dining table with five chairs surrounding it. When Monterey physician Mary Kay Brewster was sharing some holiday cheer in December, she found Reyna living in those conditions and decided to join the girl's core of supporters.

"It's so hard to see a small kid with cancer like that, so genuine and sweet," she said. "I have not been able to stop thinking about her."

Brewster put the family in touch with the Make-A-Wish Foundation so Reyna could travel to Disneyland, and she set up a fund to help the family move out of the garage. Coincidentally, the Arevalos had just found a two-bedroom apartment at CHISPA's Mountain View Townhomes in Salinas.

Two weeks ago, Reyna, her parents and 10-year-old sister spent two days at Disneyland. Reyna doesn't remember the names of the rides she went on, but she describes what could be The Story Book Land Canal Boats as the "train in the tunnel with the wolf mouth" and the "worm" in Alice in Wonderland as her favorites.

"I climbed some rocks, a white one and an orange one. The trains I rode were going very fast," she said.

This summer, after doctors found the cancer spread to Reyna's lungs, she had surgery to remove the tumors, but more have been found since then. Doctors suggested more chemotherapy, but the girl's mother doesn't know what to do.

"The medicine would be stronger now, but the doctors don't know how that would help her," Vega said. "It's a very difficult situation. As a parent, I don't know what to do. I don't want to see her suffer anymore."

On Wednesday, Vega was getting ready to move into their two-bedroom home, and her daughter's teachers at Fremont were trying to find ways to keep her from transferring to another school closer to her new home. They all feel that staying near them, the children and adults who look after her, could mean stability in Reyna's otherwise uncertain future.

As for Reyna, she was packing her clothes and stuffed animals in boxes, happy about the idea of her new home.

"She is always so positive," her mother said. "That's something I've always prayed for, that she remain optimistic and happy."

Story first appeared in the Monterey Herald on Thursday, Oct. 27. Reprinted with permission.