September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Childhood Cancer Awareness DAY is September 13th!


I'm asking everyone to call their local news stations NOW and suggest that they do a segment in September on Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  Each state could even spotlight a child in their area who is battling cancer.

Why am I asking you to do this?

Just think about all the publicity breast cancer has received.  It's because of the publicity and the pink ribbon campaign that wonderful people across the country have donated funds to breast cancer research, and women have been made aware that early detection is important. The donations collective over the years have gone to scientists who have worked hard to find new treatments to help save the lives of people who have breast cancer.

Think back to what happened when someone was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1960s.  Now, think about the progress that has been made with breast cancer treatments since then.  I'm hoping that we, as a country, can help bring an awareness to childhood cancers so that we might be able to raise the funds necessary to further research so that we might see more children's lives being saved.

Wouldn't it be amazing to be a part of saving children's lives?  We may not be able to do the research ourselves, but we can call our local news stations to help spread the word about Childhood Cancer and the need for more research.

Abby is benefiting from a clinical trial which was made possible by people like you who made donations to research foundations like the American Childhood Cancer Organization and the National Cancer Institute.

I've already made my phone calls and sent emails.  I hope you will do the same.  Every child with cancer from now until years from now will be thanking you.







Did you know that…?

• Second only to accidents, CANCER is the number one cause of death in kids.     
• Cancer kills more children than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and AIDS combined.     
• Over 12,600 kids every year are diagnosed with some form of cancer; 25-30% Do Not Survive.
• 1 in 334 children will be diagnosed with cancer yearly.     
• 60% of child survivors will develop at least one chronic health condition (e.g. secondary cancers, major organ damage, developmental problems, cognitive delays)      
• Despite these numbers only 3% of the budget from the National Cancer Institute goes towards Pediatric Cancer Research.     
• The same is true of nonprofits. Despite picturing children in their ads & using children in fundraising events, the majority of the well known Cancer charities give less than 2% to Childhood Cancers Research.

WHY IS SEPARATE FUNDING NEEDED FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER research? CANCER IS CANCER RIGHT? Wrong!

• Pediatric cancers are very different from adult cancers in their biological make up and molecular structure. Their causes remain unknown and their treatments are very different.     
• Compared to the understanding of adult cancers, little is known about what chemotherapies work, what cells mutations are involved, etc. for childhood cancers.     
• Not enough is known about what is most effective for children’s cancer, so they are bombarded with high doses of many types of chemotherapies     
• Children get more chemotherapy, for significantly longer periods of time, at higher doses, than adults.      
• There has only been ONE new drug developed in the last 20 years for pediatric cancer, ONE.      
• Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly & spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.

   Information above  taken from: National Cancer Institute, CureSearch, & Candlelighters. Statistics above refer to the U.S
http://www.workingmother.com/BestCompanies/childhood-cancer/2010/08/the-state-of-pediatric-cancer-research-funding
http://hannahshope.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/childhood-cancer/
http://www.cancer.gov/http://www.candlelighters.org/
http://www.curesearch.org/