Childhood cancer awareness:
Your support can make a difference
How sad it would be to learn your nine-week-old baby has cancer. Or instead of preparing for the first day of school, your family is preparing for your child’s first day of cancer treatments. Every day, forty-two families are told their child has cancer. Globally, there is one child diagnosed every eighty seconds.
Sadly, the five-year survival rate for American children with cancer is only one in six. The average age of diagnosis is eight years of age. In addition, childhood cancer is often difficult to diagnose early. Despite advances in surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, cancer remains the number one cause of death for American children.
More work is needed to help improve treatment outcomes and to reduce the lifelong side effects of treatment for survivors. It is also important to support families who are caring for a child with cancer because the diagnosis can impact each member of the family. Families often feel lost or isolated and need to know they are not alone.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month – a time to support research and the children and families facing a cancer diagnosis. You can help. Please go to acco.org or curesearch.org to learn more.
Linda M. Walsh, RN, BSN
770-552-6400 x6019
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