Blood Cancer Awareness

September is National Blood Cancer Awareness Month. It is also National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. These two go hand in hand of course. I've known this since I was a 7-year-old sitting in the leukemia section of Texas Children's Hospital where my baby brother was receiving chemotherapy.

I hate blood cancer. I hate that every 3 minutes someone in the USA is diagnosed with a blood cancer. And that every 10 minutes someone dies. I hate that it doesn't matter if you're healthy and strong and young and filled with life, it can come in like a flood and destroy you. I've seen it do this to many people I love.

When cancer dares to attack a child, it infuriates me. Our babies deserve a chance to live. They deserve a chance to be a carefree kid because that only happens once in life. Kids should be outside playing with their friends, getting dirty, collecting critters to show off to mom and dad, riding bikes, swimming, dancing, going to school. They should NOT be shut up inside a hospital room hooked up to IVs with poison pumping into their tiny veins. 

I'm not a fan of putting down other cancer awareness campaigns or complaining that they get more attention. I don't think that solves problems, just makes us enemies when we should unite to bring all cancers to an end. So, I won't complain that there are other cancers that get more funding and attention. Instead, I will say that I think more funding and attention needs to be given to cancers of the blood and MOST DEFINITELY to childhood cancers. They say that funding is lacking because childhood cancer is so "rare". Well, that's BS!

I have gotten into a little trouble for saying what I think before, but I won't keep quiet on this issue. If a gunman walked into a school and shot 49 kids, seven of whom were killed while the rest were taken to the hospital to fight for their lives, we would all be angry. The news would not stop talking about it. Some people would yell about gun control. There would be national and even international outrage. Well, this happens every single day in America. Only it's not a gunman doing the damage. It's cancer. Every day, 49 kids get diagnosed with cancer and 7 of them die. Seven kids every day die of cancer. Every year, 1500 innocent children lose their lives to CANCER!!!! Where is the outrage?

Here are a few facts about pediatric cancer:

• Each year around 13,500 children are diagnosed with cancer in the US, that’s more than a classroom of kids a day.
• 35,000 children are currently in treatment for cancer.
•  In 80% of kids, cancer has already spread to other areas of the body by the time it is diagnosed.
• Some 25% of all kids who are diagnosed with cancer die.
• Some pediatric brain tumors are terminal upon diagnosis and no new protocols have been developed in 30 years.
• Many pediatric cancers, including neuroblastoma and disseminated medulloblastoma, are terminal upon progression or recurrence.
• More children die of cancer every year than adults died in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
• Cancer kills more children than AIDs, asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and congenital anomalies combined.
• The average age of death for a child with cancer is 8, causing a child to lose 69 years of expected life.
• The death of a child is a traumatic event that parents never overcome. Families who have lost children are often financial and emotionally depleted.
• 74% of childhood cancer survivors have chronic illnesses, and some 40% of childhood cancer survivors have severe illnesses or die from such illnesses.
• Childhood cancer survivors are at significant risk for secondary cancers later in life.
• Cancer treatments can affect a child’s growth, fertility, and endocrine system. Child survivors may be permanently immunologically suppressed.
• Radiation to a child’s brain can significantly damage cognitive function, or if radiation is given at a very young age, limiting the ability to read, do basic math, tell time or even talk.
• Physical and neurocognitive disabilities resulting from treatment may prevent childhood cancer survivors from fully participating in school, social activities and eventually work, which can cause depression and feelings of isolation.

Please help me increase awareness and funding. Wear your gold ribbon. Start up a fundraising campaign. Encourage your local schools and businesses to "go gold" and then to donate their gold! Let's bring an end to cancer.