MALONE -- When 48-year-old Robert LeClair returned home from Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 10 years ago, he thought he would never make that trip again.

He had battled testicular cancer, and it looked like it was finally behind him.

Then, two years ago, the retired correction officer lost 30 pounds.

"I was a little worried about it, but I had just retired, and I didn't know if getting out of work was actually why I lost the weight. So I went in for a physical and ended up (finding out he had) colon cancer."

The cancer quickly traveled to his liver and recently has moved to his lungs.

This Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the OWL building in Malone, a benefit will be held to offer moral support to LeClair, who heads back to Sloan Kettering in New York City the next day for a partial lung removal.

The event will include a band, deejay and meal: two michigans, chips and soda for $5.

Maxine Brooks, LeClair's sister and benefit organizer, said her brother has always been kind-hearted and she wanted to turn the tables.

"When I first decided to do this for him, I didn't know how he would react because he doesn't like people to do for him."

LeClair, who has three children that mean the world to him, admitted through tears that a day in his honor is something that he could have lived without.

"It's not that I can't afford to go to New York City because I can. But I know that I have a lot of friends that are going to be at the benefit, and the support is great."

After a pause, he continued, "I feel bad about the money, but I look at it another way. It will be more money to do things with my family."

Some of the funds will also be used for a scholarship for Malone Central School.

Last time LeClair was at Sloan Kettering, because of his slim chances for survival, he was known as the "Miracle Child."

"I just wasn't ready to die," he said.