Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Childhood cancer awareness month                  [Bulletin date Sept. 21, 2025]

Your support can make a difference!

How sad it would be to learn your newborn infant has cancer.  Or, instead of preparing for the first day of school, your family prepared for your child’s first day of cancer treatments.  Sadly, this is reality to some when every 34 minutes a family in the U.Sl is told their child has cancer. What is worse is that twenty percent of these children will not survive the diagnosis.    

Globally each year, childhood cancer affects approximately 400,000 people under the age of 18.  Despite advances in surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, cancer is still the number one cause of death for American children.  While the 5-year survival rate has improved, more work is needed to help improve treatment outcomes and to reduce the lifelong side effects of treatment for survivors. 

Meanwhile, it is also important to support families who are caring for a child with cancer.  The diagnosis of cancer can affect each family member in a different way.  They often feel lost or isolated.  Sometimes families are separated when the loved one needs to travel for treatment.  Families need to know they are not alone. 

That’s why it is important to support childhood cancer research and the children and families facing a diagnosis of cancer.  To learn more about what you can do to help, go to: www.acco.org, www.stjude.org, or www.curesearch.org.  

Pastoral Care Director, 

St. Ann Parish Nurse

Linda M. Walsh, RN, BSN

lwalshrn@st-ann.org 
770-552-6400 x6019