September is a childhood cancer awareness month
Autumn starts with Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Let’s see why simple awareness can make a big difference in the lives of children with cancer and their families.
As usually unexpectedly, summer came to its end. But we are not sad about it at Triumf Health, as September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month and there is so much we want to share!
Did you know that cancer is #1 cause of death in developed countries and the second leading cause of death among children worldwide? Cancer affects all ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups. There is no way to prevent cancer in children as the majority of pediatric cancers originate in spontaneous genetic mutations. What’s more important, cancer is curable. With the right treatment, sufficient medication, and proper social support children can not just survive, but come back to normal life.
That is why we believe knowledge is power and we would like to start the Childhood Cancer Awareness Month by talking why awareness is so important and how it can make a difference.
First, cancer treatment is very expensive and, unfortunately, insurance or state programs do not always cover it. Moreover, some types of treatment are available only in certain countries, meaning children and their parents need to travel and stay abroad for a long period of treatment. There are many funds and charity organizations supporting families with ill children, but they need constant donations to keep the work done. Small donation from many compassionate and kind people can make a huge difference! Therefore, it’s so important that as many people as possible knew about childhood cancer global impact.
Secondly, for some cancer types, e.g. leukemia, children need multiple blood transfusions, meaning there is a great demand for donor blood, bone marrow, and other tissues. So people who are willing to help, but do not have financial opportunity to do that, have a golden resource within them. Thousands of children and their parents are eternally grateful to all the donors who help saving lives daily. But as there is a constant demand in blood and other tissues, the more people know about this problem, the more children can be saved.
The research and medical community is another important target for childhood cancer awareness, particularly about the successes in treatment of rare types of cancers, so that effective treatment becomes available worldwide. We have talked about many amazing researchers during Cancer Research month in May and we will continue sharing the news about the newest findings in the field, thus supporting awareness goals.
Finally, awareness about childhood cancer is important on the global level, of course. But maybe you know that some kid in your child’s school or your neighbor’s nephew is sick and you can make a big difference in their lives just by showing your willingness to help and support them. There are so many ways to improve lives of the little superheroes fighting for their lives. You can organize a fundraising costume party at school, bring old toys to the nearest child hospital, volunteer in summer camp for childhood cancer survivors, and so on. Check out your nearest community for children with cancer and their families, we assure you there are plenty of them, you just need to get aware of their existence. Remember, a small act of kindness goes a long way in making big difference!
