DAPHNE, Ala. — On a typical Thursday afternoon, Kayla Campbell and Erin Cox laugh and play at Centennial Park, carefree, like others their age.

But the biggest bully in their lives isn’t a child you’ll find on the jungle gym or see-saw.

It’s cancer.

Kayla’s journey as a cancer survivor began last April, when her mother, Ashley, found a small lump under her arm. Doctors diagnosed it as Ewing’s saracoma, a bone cancer that, in a rare case, grew inside Kayla’s soft tissue, Ashley said.

“You don’t realize the little things,” her mother said. “When I found it (the lump), it was the size of the end of my finger — within one month it was the size of a golf ball.”

The Campbell family, for a time, had traveled to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital every three weeks for days-long visits with Kayla, who, at one point, spent 63 days in UAB’s care.

The 6-year-old underwent extreme chemotherapy — a treatment that uses chemicals to destroy cancerous tissue — and was kept considerably hydrated, Ashley said.

“The first couple of times, I threw up a lot,” Kayla said, recalling the treatments.

Kayla’s brother, Dalton, 8, often accompanied the family to Birmingham. He and Ashley recalled Kayla’s perceived drawbacks to being hospitalized.

“She wanted Burger King, not cafeteria food,” Dalton said of his sister’s cravings.

Kayla had been very sensitive to taste, and certain things would make her sick, Ashley said.

“I remember all she wanted was the mayor’s fried chicken from Fastimes,” Ashley said, referring to food offerings from the Fastime service station, owned by Mayor Fred Small. “We ate so much fried chicken.”

Dalton said of another craving, “She wanted Yoo-Hoos from the gas station — 29 blocks away.”

Ashley said they walked all 29 blocks to get the drinks. Kayla grew sick during her first few sips and wouldn’t drink anymore of the chocolate milk.

The family tried to make the situation as positive as possible, Ashley recalled. She remembered taking Kayla on several adventures while in Birmingham.

“We took that IV pole everywhere,” Ashley said, of carrying the intravenous medicines on outings in between treatments.

She recalled rolling the IV stand over the pavement as they crossed streets and trekked down sidewalks.

The family racked up plenty of hours at the Children’s Harbor Family Center, a Birmingham establishment for children with long-term illness that facilitates activities like air hockey, indoor basketball and video games.

“It’s fine because when you get off chemo, you can play at the Harbor,” Kayla said. “I beat my mom in air hockey.”

Ashley recalled growing acquainted with families at the Harbor, but also coming face to face with some illness’ harsh realities.

“We were there so much that we lost some,” she said. “They went to be with God.”

Ashley expressed that she feels blessed for Kayla’s unofficial remission.

“We were lucky; the first treatment … (the lump) shrunk immediately,” she said.

Erin, 2, was entering regular potty-training lessons with her parents last year when the family’s world changed forever.

Graham Cox, Erin’s father, said she told him she needed to go to the bathroom — that was all it took for him to learn the truth.

“When I pulled down her Pull-up, it looked like a woman’s menstrual cycle, with blood clots in the diaper,” he said.

Cox and his wife, Candice, immediately took Erin to Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, where physicians told them Erin had a urinary tract infection.

But Cox knew deep down that something more was wrong.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not leaving here till you find out what’s wrong,’” he said.

They took Erin to USA Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Mobile, where they found a growth, he said, recalling Erin’s diagnosis last August.

Erin was diagnosed with Wilms’ disease, a children’s cancer that attacks the renal system.

Cox explained that Erin’s tumor wrapped around the kidney so that the entire organ had to be removed.

“If you can imagine, she was 24 pounds and they pulled a 4-pound Nerf football out of her stomach,” he said. “She instantly went from a chubby belly to skinny.”

Doctors will test her again in about a month, he said. If they find nothing, she will be in official remission.

“It’s a whirlwind from one day to the next,” he said.

“I hate the word (cancer),” he added. “I want them to eradicate it completely.

“It almost cost my 2-year-old daughter her life.”

But Erin is coping well. Ask her how she got the long, vertical scar on her stomach and she’ll tell you the dog did it.

“Marco scratch me,” she said.

Erin knows she feels differently than she did last year.

“I’m better too,” she said.