Ill children take trip to 'North Pole'

His head hairless from two weeks of radiation treatment, 10-year-old Billy Fischer bounded down the steps of a Delta jet parked Wednesday in the hangar at Kennedy Airport and made a beeline to the bounce house.

The Brookville boy and his family were inside an otherwise drab-looking airport hangar decked out in its Christmas best on a dark dreary day. For Billy, who has endured months of treatment for brain tumors, the lights and sights of the holiday season were another sign of good things to come - he's now cancer free.

"He's always been a big Christmas kid," said Billy's father, Morgan Fischer of Brookville. "It has been a long year."

The Fischers were among a half-dozen families from Long Island with children battling health problems who took a 30-minute taxi ride on a Delta Air Lines plane Wednesday from Terminal 2 at the airport to the hangar, transformed into Santa's workshop.

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