SAN ANTONIO -- Dozens of kids sharing the fight against cancer gathered for a week of fun at Discovery Camp, a special camp where they get away from the doctor's office, examinations and hospitals and are allowed to just be kids.

"They're not being treated like the sick kid in the hospital," said Amy Walton, a counselor and former camper. "They can't use the 'Oh, but I have cancer card,' to get treated differently because we look at them and say, 'So? So does everybody else.'"

"You know everybody's experienced the same thing. No one has anything to hold back," said Niqi Crump, a 15-year old from McKinney, Texas, who's battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

The camp has been held for over 25 years and offers all the same activities like every other camp, including golf, tennis, swimming and arts and crafts, but the bond of cancer gives all the children a sense of normalcy.

"You can be missing a leg, you can be bald, have scars, have a port here or here," said Sadie Byboth. "All kinds of things going on but everybody here's the same."

"This is an opportunity for kids to get away for the summer, to run and play and dance and be with other kids who know exactly what they're going through," adds camp co-director Deb Echtenkamp.

As cancer survivors, some of those late night camp talks are a bit different.

"It's kind of like swapping trading cards more than a deep discussion," said Walton. "It's like, 'Oh, you were on methatrexate too? Did it make you lose your hair? Yeah, I lost all of mine.' It's really an interesting dynamic."

The camp at Texas Lions Camp, which is home to other specialized camps including children with physical disabilities and cancer, has grown from 25 campers to over 150. There are new faces every year but many of them are repeat customers. Walton attended for a decade after getting diagnosed with leukemia when she was four.

"Even though I was so young when I was diagnosed, it was still such a great experience to see what other kids were going through and how people were coping with it later," Walton said.

Now, she's too old to camp but returns as a counselor, a trend that is growing as big as the camp's attendance.

"You think nothing can beat being a camper at the best camp in the world but then you're a counselor and you realize you get to give back what you got all those years and it's so much better," said Sadie Byboth, a brain tumor survivor. "It's great knowing there's hope for them on the other side because I've been through it and I know they can come through it too."

"It's encouraging for the other kids to see that too because they're like, 'Oh, they got through this and moved on and now they're a counselor. I can do that too,'" said Echtenkamp. "A lot of our campers, one of their goals is to grow up and become a counselor."