For the children...

We can do a lot to take care of the bodies God gave us.  We lower (or raise) our risk of disease by our lifestyles.  But what about the children who face major illness, where it is not a "lifestyle disease" but a direct attack of the devil?  A friend of mine is involved in St. Jude and I've asked her to tell a little about childhood cancer.  Read on...

I am so grateful to Sheri for letting me share my passion for cancer research. By trade I am a collection attorney, but in my personal life I am a fierce fundraiser and enjoy raising money for a variety of cancer-focused charities.

This month, September, is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. While many people may associate cancer with growing older, it is important to remember that this deadly disease reaches the young as well as the old. It is estimated that each year 175,000 children are diagnosed with cancer and 1 in 5 of those children in the United States will not survive.  A cancer diagnosis can be hard at any stage of life, but it can be particularly difficult for very young patients who lack the cognitive ability to understand their diagnoses. Parents also experience hardships such as the fear of losing a child, grieving the lost childhood they had imagined for their child, missed time at work affecting the financial stability of their families, and the strain on relationships with siblings.

Thankfully, there are resources in the United States to help children and their families affected by cancer. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital takes on the toughest pediatric oncology cases in the United States at no cost to the patient’s family. St. Jude provides treatment, travel, housing, and food during a child’s fight with cancer so the family may focus solely on helping their child. Also focusing on research, St. Jude develops more clinical trials than any other children’s hospital in the world and is working with the Pediatric Genome Project to uncover the roots of pediatric cancer within a child’s DNA.

To date, nearly 500,000 children in the United States have been successfully treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital! The work performed at the hospital is of the highest caliber of expertise and compassion. Please consider supporting St. Jude and funding the fight against children’s cancer by visiting my fundraising website:

http://walkrun.stjude.org/jenandjt

All donations are tax-deductible and no donation is too small (or too big)!