Sweet Life With Boys

Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month

September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.  Laura has been reading me statistics about childhood cancer the last few days.  I hope that you will indulge us and let me share several statistics and important facts that have been brought to our attention.

• This year 12,500 parents will hear the words "Your child has cancer".
• Despite much progress in the treatment of childhood cancer, 1 in 5 children with cancer will die.  Every 6.5 hours a child dies from this terrible disease.
• Right now, over 40,000 children in our country are being treated for cancer.
• Cancer is the #1 leading cause of childhood death from disease.
• 1 in every 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 20.

Wow.  It is staggering to me that so many children and families are suffering right now as I write this.  Tomorrow the numbers will grow.  Please join me in pausing for a moment in our busy lives and praying for these children and their families.  My prayer is that the families find peace in Christ and that in this difficult and at times overwhelming experience that they sense that God is standing with them no matter how tough times are.  I also pray for comfort for the children whom are enduring many different procedures and doing so when they potentially feel horrible.  I also pray for answers to the question of how and why so many children are impacted with this disease and that new and better treatments are being developed.  God please guide the hand of the researchers, doctors, nurses, and other health providers who work so hard to help and love our children with cancer.

I also ran across a couple of interesting statistics about childhood cancer research.

• It cost an average of $802 million in research and development to bring one new cancer drug to market.
• 3.8% of federal cancer research funding goes to childhood cancer

There are many private groups working hard to raise awareness and funding for this cause. 

Gold is the color used to signify childhood cancer.  Laura and I were so touched to learn about this last year when a group of loving friends created a Team David t-shirt and the colors used were maroon and gold.  The maroon was because David loves the VT Hokies and the gold is symbolic of childhood cancer awareness.  Laura and I both cherish our shirts and usually wear them when we go for his appointments.  His doctors and nurses must wonder if we own anything else :-)

Please know that those who have dealt with or are dealing with this terrible disease appreciate your prayers, kind words and support.  God bless.