Thursday, September 16, 2010

Golf Tournament

Good Morning, everyone! The golf tournament for Carter' Crusaders is rapidly approaching. It is October 7th at Lee's Hill Golf Course. I have about 10 hole sponsors but need many more. I am hoping to make this a huge success. Not only did little Declan lose his battle, there are 2 other children (that I know of) in the area that are battling brain cancer. One of those children is the child of someone who grew up on the same street as myself. He is 12 years old and was very athletic- he is now unable to play any sports. He is currently undergoing treatment. THIS HAS TO END!!! The only way for that to happen is to raise awareness and money for research. We have changed the way that we will split the proceeds- 1/4 will go to The Cure Starts Now, 1/4 to Just One More Day, 1/2 will be split between the 2 local families. Please help us make this a success. If you would like to register to play or sponsor a hole, please contact Chuck Harris at Lee's Hill at 891-0111. Thank you again for your continued support!!!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!!!

Please be aware that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month! I was reading on all of the sites of children that I follow and I found these statistics on a page in honor of a little boy, Declan (www.declansjourney.com). Declan's story has touched my heart in a very profound way. He battled AT/RT for about 6 months and then went home to Heaven just days before his 1st Birthday. There is also another local couple whose daughter is battling AT/RT. Visit www.evybeatscancer.blogspot.com! I wanted to share these statistics with you as we enter the month of September. Please wear a gold ribbon this month and share Carter's story with someone. Visit Declan's page and Evy's page and share their stories. Let others know that childhood cancer does exist and it is absolutely necessary that we find a cure!!!


- The American Cancer Society’s Annual Report shows $1 BILLION in total public support and it’s Extramural/Intramural Funding in Priority Areas shows only $4 MILLION is directed to childhood cancers. Less than half a penny of each of these dollars is directed to the #1 killing disease for kids under the age of 20

- For children between 1-19 years, cancer is the fourth leading cause of death overall, and the leading cause of disease related death. It remains responsible for more deaths from ages 1-19 than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS COMBINED

- Approximately 46 U.S. children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every single day

- 1 in every 330 children will develop cancer before the age of 19

- National Cancer Institute’s Federal Budget was $4.6 billion from this total ALL twelve major pediatric cancers received LESS THAN 3% of this budget

- For every six research dollars per patient with AIDS and every one research dollar per patient with breast cancer, a child with cancer receives only 30 cents

- Common adult cancers are extremely rare in children, yet there are many cancers that are almost exclusively found in children

- 1 out of every 5 children diagnosed with cancer dies

- 3 out of every 5 children diagnosed with cancer suffer from long-term or late onset side effects

- Common cancer symptoms in children are often suspected to be common illnesses and thus treated as such causing cancer to be found at later stages

- Attempts to detect childhood cancers at an earlier stage when the disease would react more favorably to treatment have largely failed

- Approximately 20% of adults with cancer show evidence that their disease has spread, yet almost 80% of children show that their cancer has spread to distant sites

- Cause of childhood cancers are unknown and at present, cannot be prevented

- Nationally, childhood cancer is 20 times more prevalent than pediatric AIDS yet pediatric AIDS receives four times the funding that childhood cancer receives

- On the average, 12,500 children in the US are diagnosed with cancer each year

- On the average, one in ever four elementary schools has a child with cancer

- 2,300 children and teenagers will die each year from cancer

- Several childhood cancers continue to have a very poor prognosis, including brain stem tumors, metastatic sarcomas and relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia and relapsed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

- Every day 9 children in the US are diagnosed with a brain tumor

- Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer death from childhood cancer

- There are more than 120 different types of brain tumors, making effective treatment very complicated

- Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, their effects on a child’s physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating

- At this time, brain cancer research is underfunded and THE PUBLIC REMAINS LARGELY UNAWARE of the magnitude of this disease

- The cure rate for most brain cancers is significantly lower than that for many other types of cancer

- The funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials has gone down every year since 2003, and is currently $26.4 million. By comparison, NCI funding for AIDS research was $254 million in 2006; funding for breast cancer topped $584 million the same year

- We may spend 3-5 times the amount of research money per patient on most adult cancer cases than we do on children with cancer

- In general, children with Central Nervous System (CNS) cancer do not share the favorable prognosis of those with many other common pediatric neoplasms


THESE STATISTICS ARE ASTOUNDING!!!! WE HAVE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR OUR CHILDREN!!