September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Each day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer. Each day, 7 children die as a result of childhood cancer. It is the number one killer disease of our children, more than more than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and pediatric AIDS combined. Did you know that 1 in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer before age 20 and that 35-40,000 are in treatment every day? Yet only 3% of all cancer research money goes to childhood cancer. Our war against childhood cancer is vastly under-publicized and under-funded. It is the Inconvenient Truth America needs to be aware of.
I don’t know how many of you readers have ever been on a pediatric oncology floor. If you have ever walked the halls and seen the smiles or tears on the faces of these little fighters as they play on the little trikes and big wheels. How the moms and dads race behind them with the ever present IV pole. How they have little child-sized masks on because they are at high risk of infection. How the teens hang together and still try to be cool, even though they’re bald and ready to throw up at any time. How the teens have added words like methotrexate, hydration, and limb-salvage; and acronyms like ANC and GCSF to their vocabulary, instead of LOL and "sweet". How the poor little babies cry because they can't even relate what hurts. Or if you've ever seen a mom or dad alone in the parent room at 3 am, with their head in their hands, feeling alone, helpless, scared, and mad. I don't know if you've ever visited a Care Page or a Caring Bridge site besides this one, blogs where we tell our kid's stories. How many people do you know who have quit reading your blog because it is too uncomfortable (I know that first hand; a specific member of my family won't read this; someone who I thought would care about David. Guess I was wrong!)? I've seen it all and more. I have seen enough. I have lived through it. I am still living it. I will forever live it. My child is one of those teens, and I am one of those parents. We need awareness and funding. We need a cure!
Again, enough said. Thanks for visiting. God bless you all.
Kristi and the Koury Klan
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