The pair enter a cheerfully painted room and sit down at a long counter

And worse.The pair enter a cheerfully painted room and sit down at a long counter.They pick up Xbox controllers.Lego Star Wars fills the man watches room with its cartoon explosions, jingling studs, babbling minifigs.It's 2:20 p.m., August 4, 2009, and Joe Evans is, in this moment and for however long it lasts, having a normal childhood.""We just hear the happiness,"" Joe's mom, Susan, 47, says as Joe and his 10-year-old brother, Will, tear through Lego Star Wars and Mario Kart on the GameCube.

""It's a chance to have peace of mind, and for the little guy, it takes away, maybe, that knowledge of the poison going through him.""More Than A Gift Of GamesJoe, his family, and the hospital are themselves one amongst the community served by Child's Play which, in its three year existence, has emerged as something of the gamers' hot watches charity.Despite living a lifestyle often associated, by non-gamers, with basement-cloistered self-absorption, gamers have pitched in to the more than $1.4 $3 million donated since Child's Play's establishment in 2003.More than $18,000 worth of video games, consoles and peripherals have come to Emanuel Children's Hospital since 2006.

But the story doesn't stop with the numbers, even though so often it does, typically during a routine mention of a fund drive, often during the holidays.The games serve a therapeutic need that professional staff describe as increasingly critical.The charity is a pipeline of donations that keep games free from the critical-needs scrum of a hospital handbags foundation's funding process.The experience is more than entertainment or diversion for the patient - it provides a family activity, a way for children to support and be with siblings in circumstances frightening to them as well.