September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, and it has ended on a somber note. Three children you almost certainly have never heard of: Madison, Valerie and Luke. Three children who have died in the past 2 days of cancer. Here’s another name: Jessica - a ten-year old girl who has been under hospice care for about a month now - undergoing unbearable pain as the tumors of rhabdomyosarcoma invade her chest cavity - displacing her organs and wrapping around her ribs. She will be joining Madison, Valerie and Luke in heaven soon. Yet another young life ended much too soon. And there is also Sammie - another “cancer kid” now with hospice care. My heart is broken for these precious children and all they have had to endure. For their families, too.
Childhood cancer is a reality that is unpleasant - horrifying - unbearably sad. That’s why, in my opinion, people don’t give childhood cancer the attention and funding it desperately needs. It is so much more palatable to give our attention and money to adult cancers and illnesses. Adult illnesses are sad - but they’re ADULTS - at least they made it through their childhoods. We can deal with adult cancer.
I remember a few years ago changing the television station when a St. Jude program came on. I couldn’t bear to watch the little bald-headed children - especially when Marlo Thomas highlighted a child who lost the battle against cancer. It was too painful to think of children undergoing chemotherapy and radiation — too horrifying to think of children losing limbs and being disfigured by cancer - too sad to think of children dying painful deaths. So I changed the channel.
All of those horrifying things are a reality, though. Right this very minute there are children dying of cancer. Those children and their families can’t change the TV channel. They can’t look the other way.
We owe it to those children to give our absolute 100% effort to do everything in our power to end childhood cancer once and for all. There IS a cure for childhood cancer. There IS a way to prevent it. We just have to fund enough research to find them.
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October 3rd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Well Carol, your beautiful daughter is certainly doing her part and so are you and your family. PaPa’s remarks are so perfect! I have thought recently how awful for young mothers(Karen who did my hair)and several teachers in Lyn’s school, who have died and left young children. But nothing so touched me like Lily’s CaringBridge today. Tell Larisa she can erase by remarks as they may not make sense. But I was a little older than Lily when my dad died and I remember the sadness and could see that in Lily’s remarks to her mother…She is adorable and so is Sophie. I loved Ron’s story about her holding the sign…
October 4th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Oh so very true, Carol. Self-defense is an instinct, and unless we intentially choose to do so, we don’t allow ourselves to face these issues. In this case, the results are tragic.