About 100 cancer survivors gathered at the Great Hall of People in Beijing on January 10 to celebratethe first Spring Festival in the new millennium.

Fan Banhan, a six-year-old boy from north China's port city of Tianjin, who has recovered from brain cancer, hid his rosy face in his mother's arms to avoid the glare of photographers' flashbulbs.

"I was desperate when the doctor told me that my son had brain cancer a year and a half ago," said the boy's mother, Liu Guofen. "His weight fell to 19 kilograms after a brain operation and some chemotherapy, and he looked very ill."

Like many cancer survivors who gathered in Beijing, Banhan's family finally turned to traditional Chinese medicine. After several months of taking an herbal medicine, the boy began to put on weight and his cheeks have regained their healthy glow.

He was one of the "100 anti-cancer fighters" honored by the International Cancer Healing Association and the Zhenguo Industrial Group.

Someone dies of cancer every six seconds in the world, and the disease claims 1.05 million lives each year in China, or 15 percent of the total mortality figure, said Wang Zhenguo, president of the association, who added that conquering cancer is a common wish of all people.

He said that the activity is to advertise the positive effects of traditional Chinese medicine and inspire cancer patients to fight against their disease by taking strength from the experiences of cancer survivors.

Eleven cancer survivors from the United States, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries as well as from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and 89 cancer survivors from the Chinese interior area, who have recovered with the help of traditional Chinese medicine, attended the party.

"Cancer does not mean death," said Huang Po, a 39-year-old man from Changchun City in northeast China's Jilin Province. He was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1994, and almost lost his will to live.

However, after a period of therapy that combined western and Chinese medicines, his health returned and he was strong enough tocomplete a four-month bicycle tour. He and other cancer survivors rode bicycles from his hometown to Zhuhai City in south China's Guangdong Province late last year to greet the return of Macao to the motherland.

"We spent 110 days on the trip across east China," said the tall traveler. "We told people we met during the trip that cancer is not incurable if prompt and proper therapies are applied."

He is raising money for another trip to west China, and will continue to advertise the combined cancer-fighting therapies of western and Chinese medicines.

"I will tell every cancer patient I meet that 'you can become as healthy as me tomorrow'," he said.