“Having a child with cancer is like swimming in a toilet bowl. Some may have a bigger piece of crap to hold onto to stay afloat, but it’s all still crap.”
My son is battling cancer at this very moment and, though we have the good fortune of living in an industrialized country, which gives him a good chance of survival,there's still so much more that needs to be done to conquer the number one killer of children in the world.
Each year, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer, and about 90,000 die from the disease. With prompt and effective treatment, most childhood cancers can be cured – but global statistics expose a shocking disparity - in developed countries, around 80% of children with cancer survive, but in low resource settings this figure falls to 20% or even 10% in the world's poorest countries.
Poor diagnosis coupled with too few specially trained doctors and nurses and the mistaken belief that child cancer is too difficult to cure combine to create very low survival rates. In fact, at least 50% of child cancers can be cured even in resource-poor environments with relatively simple and inexpensive drugs and procedures which have been known to doctors for decades and, yet tens of thousands of children die needlessly every year from the disease - most dying without any effective pain relief. .
As the parent of a cancer child there is so little that you can do to help your precious baby, You cannot make this better, You cannot kiss this away... All you can do is raise awareness and, raise much needed funds for research of childhood cancers, something that is being neglected by national cancer groups and governments all over the world.
Every day 46 children are diagnosed with cancer. One quarter of them will not survive, and for those that do, the road ahead is uncertain, often due to side effects from the harsh treatments.
All kinds of cancer, including childhood cancer, have a common disease process — cells grow out of control, develop abnormal sizes and shapes, ignore their typical boundaries inside the body, destroy their neighbor cells, and ultimately can spread (or metastasize) to other organs and tissues.
As cancer cells grow, they demand more and more of the body's nutrition. Cancer takes a child's strength, destroys organs and bones, and weakens the body's defenses against other illnesses.
Among all age groups, the most common childhood cancers are leukemia, lymphoma, and brain cancer. As kids enter the teen years, there is also an increase in the incidence of osteosarcoma (bone cancer).
Cancer is the #1 killer of children.
It kills more children than AIDS, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and asthma combined.
Every four hours a child will die from pediatric cancer.
In the U.S. alone, over 3000 children die from cancer each year….there is no real statistic for how many die of the secondary effects of the treatments….infections, organ failure, respiratory failure etc… 1 is too many.
And yet only 1 new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use in the past 25 years.
The average age of a child being diagnosed is 6, the average age for an adult is 66.
Sometimes, a doctor might spot early symptoms of cancer at regular checkups.
- Fever,
- Swollen glands,
- Frequent infections,
- Anemia, or bruises
However, some of these symptoms are also associated with other infections or conditions that are much more common than cancer, which causes both doctors and parents to suspect other childhood illnesses when cancer symptoms first appear. Because of this, 80% of children are diagnosed with advanced disease, where as Only about 20% of adults with cancer show evidence that the disease has spread to distant sites on the body at diagnosis.
In most cases, childhood cancers arise from noninherited mutations (or changes) in the genes of growing cells. Because these errors occur randomly and unpredictably, there's no effective way to prevent them.
Childhood cancer can affect any child – from newborns to teenagers. Most of the time there is no known cause . . . no one knows why some children get cancer . . . and no one knows why some children respond to treatment and others don't. There are no boundaries it won’t cross, cancer doesn’t discriminate.
The diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancers takes time, and there are both short-term and long-term side effects. But thanks to research and, medical advances, more and more kids with cancer are finishing successful treatment, leaving hospitals, and growing up just like everybody else. Today, up to 70% of all children with cancer can be cured, but three out of every five children who survive cancer will be diagnosed with another cancer, a chronic illness or another life threatening illness before they are adults.
More RESEARCH in the field of pediatric oncology (treatment of childhood cancer), is the only way to stop this disease from taking more precious innocent lives and, that's also the only HOPE for the aproxematly 160000 children worldwide whom will get the diagnosis this year alone.
Below are just a few of the hundreds of ways to help these children
- The Cure Starts Now Foundation - Started in memory of 6-year-old Elena who lost her battle to brain cancer in 2006. They believe that finding the cure for all cancers, childhood and adult starts with finding the cure for pediatric cancer. All donations go to pediatric cancer research for a "homerun" and less toxic cure.
- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - The leading children's research hospital in the world, St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family's inability to pay.
- The Make a Wish Foundation - Grants the wishes of children with life threatening illnesses. Make a wish gives children and their families time away from the hospital to have fun doing whatever their wish may be; From being a super hero, to meeting their favorite singer or going on a trip across the world.
- Tyler Genneken Foundation - Founded by the parents of 14 year old Tyler Genneken who lost his battle to Leukemia in 2009 after no match could be found for a bone marrow transplant. Their goal is to raise awareness and funds for pediatric cancer research and to get 10,000 names added to the national bone marrow registry (Be the Match) to make sure no child has to face the same fate their son did.
- Be the Match - Are helping patients afford transplant, find a matching donor and build a future as they advance medical research.
- Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation - Started by 8 year old Alex who began selling lemonade to raise money for childhood cancer research and raised over $1 million before she passed away in 2004 after a long battle with Neuroblastoma. Her parents have continued the foundation with the help of people across the country starting their own lemonade stands and donating to the foundation.
- The Cole's Prayer Foundation - Founded by the parents of Cole Ruotsola who passed away at the age of 3 after just 8 weeks of battling cancer. The Foundation provides prayer and support for children with life threatening illnesses as well as their families, raises awareness for childhood cancer, and advocates research to find a cure.
- The Cure Search foundation - CureSearch unites the world's largest childhood cancer research organization, the Children's Oncology Group, and the National Childhood Cancer Foundation through our mission to cure childhood cancer. Research is the key to the cure.
- Abby does not have cancer nor has she ever had cancer, but she does know 5-year-old Taylor Love who is battling not one but two cancers - the second being caused by treatment of the first. She has an amazing musical talent that she uses to raise money for Taylor Love and childhood Cancer research.
- World Child Cancer - Is a small but effective charity that relies on the support of individuals from all over the world to help them save the lives and reduce the suffering of children with cancer.
To treat certain cancers in low and middle income countries can cost a fraction of the price of treatment in the developed world due to the treatment used and technology available. Therefore, anything you can fundraise will have a significant impact on children’s lives.
