Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, an opportunity for Deliver the Dream and other charities for children with cancer to come together to help raise awareness of the tragedy families with children diagnosed with cancer face as well as the need for additional funding for research in the field of pediatric cancer. 

In 2012, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation designating September as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and encouraged all Americans to reaffirm a commitment to fighting childhood cancer.

The Need

Did you know that childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for kids under the age of 14? And is second only to accidents in the cause of death of children under the age of 15. 

Here are more daunting statistics provided by St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, an amazing children’s cancer charity: 

• Every day, 43 children living in the United States are diagnosed with some form of cancer.
• Every year, at least 300,000 children and adolescents around the world are diagnosed with cancer.
• About 10 percent of those children develop cancer due to a genetic mutation they inherited from their parents.
• Survival rates have increased, but more than 95 percent of those who survive their battle with childhood cancer must deal with significant health issues that are related to the life-saving treatment they received.

Not only is the dedicated staff at St. Jude’s leading the way in the fight to defeat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases, it is doing it without asking families going through the unbelievable nightmare of a childhood cancer diagnosis to pay for the necessary care. That’s the way the founder of the world-famous nonprofit charity that serves children and their families – Danny Thomas – wanted it. At St. Jude’s, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

Here at Deliver the Dream, a local charity that supports children with cancer and their families, we have heard moving stories from families who owe the life of their child to the work being done at St. Jude’s. We salute them and the groundbreaking research they are doing.