Childhood Cancer Awareness

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

I've never been a fan of "cancer awareness"... it's always annoyed me.  In the past I've associated "awareness" with breast cancer awareness, and it's generally pissed me off.  Yeah, we are aware.  Now find a cure.

But that was before.  Before my child was diagnosed with cancer.  Before I realized how unaware I was about childhood cancer.

Here are some facts:

• Every year an estimated 250,000 new cases of cancer affect children under the age of 20.  That's almost 700 new kids affected EVERY DAY.

• Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 19 in the U.S.

• Every day, approximately 250 kids worldwide DIE from cancer.  That's 91,250 kids, every year, who lose their life to cancer.

• Childhood cancer is not just one disease.  It is made up of 12 major types and over 100 subtypes.

• 1 in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 20 years old. 

• Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly, and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.  It does not pick and chose.  It does not discriminate.  In the U.S. the incidence of cancer among teens and young adults is increasing at a greater rate than any other age group, except those over 65.

Despite these facts, childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded.

Even more infuriating, childhood cancer research receives just 4% of the annual budget of the National Cancer Institute. 

Here's the takeaway: childhood cancer is not rare, there still is no cure, and children die every single day because of a disease they did nothing to get.  The causes of most childhood cancers are still unknown.  Unlike most adult cancers, there is no strong link to lifestyle or environment to childhood cancer.

These statistics don't even touch on long term health effects of survivors, financial effects on families, and the psychosocial effects that threaten every aspect of a family's life.

My heart aches not just for my daughter, my other kids, my ex-husband... our family... but for all the families I see in the hallway on our unit.  All the mothers I see microwaving a cup of Easy Mac with hope-filled eyes that this time her child will eat something.  All the dads I see with blood shot eyes and blank stares trying to remain stoic in the elevator.

According to these statistics, we are not alone. But we also are very isolated.  We feel invisible.  We don't know how to talk to other parents anymore.  Some of us have lost faith and some of us found it. Some of us planned a Make a Wish trip and some of us planned a funeral.

We would ALL rather be the ones lying in our kid's hospital bed having the poison drip into us.

I hope this touched someone.  If it did, help spread awareness because we can and should do better.


Sources:

http://www.cancer.org/research/cancerfactsstatistics/cancerfactsfigures2014/ https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/budget-in-brief/nih/index.html
The Lancet Oncology. 2013; 14 (3): e95-e103. https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet Journal of American Medical Association: 2013; 309 (22): 2371-2381