September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Of course, every month should be childhood cancer awareness month, but I digress. So, this September, I challenge all of you to find a way to join the fight against childhood cancer. Could you skip your morning Starbucks for just one month (heck, one week!) and donate that money towards much needed cancer research? Can you volunteer for a local organization to aid in fundraising, awareness, or helping families in your area who have been afflicted by cancer? Families right here in Wisconsin need help. Emotional support, financial support, and the every day tasks that fall to the wayside while the family focuses on the biggest fight of their lives. Could you deliver a hot meal? Offer to help with yard work or house cleaning? Pick up groceries or run to the pharmacy? There are so many things you can do to help children and their families right now. Don’t know where to start or who needs help? We can help you with that. Send us an email at info@teampaxton.org and we can help you connect with a local family or local organization that needs your help.
This September, please spend some time to think about how you can help make a difference in these kids’ lives. Give them a chance to grow up. To learn to ride a bicycle, to attend school, to climb the monkey bars, to learn to tie their own shoes, or learn to read Dr. Seuss.
Give them the gift of their first teenage crush, their first dance, the proud feeling of a driver learner’s permit. For some, the tiniest children, give them a chance to taste their next birthday cake, in some cases, their first birthday cake, give their parents the chance to hear their baby speak “mama” or “dada” for the first time. We all take so much for granted. Things that some of these children will never experience.
This September, sacrifice a few small things to make a big difference. These kids are our heroes. This is your chance to be theirs.
Did you know?
- One in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of twenty.
- On the average, 36 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer everyday in the United States.
- On the average, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are current or former cancer patients.
- Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the United States.
- Childhood cancers affect more potential patient-years of life than any other cancer except breast and lung cancer.
- The causes of most childhood cancers are unknown. At present, childhood cancer cannot be prevented.
- Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region. In the United States, the incidence of cancer among adolescents and young adults is increasing at a greater rate than any other age group, except those over 65 years.
- Despite these facts, childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded.
