School's Out

Episode IV X	School's Out
Leave them kids alone!
Blog Beat	Cool Kids | Echosmith

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This is where I would usually have an introductory tidbit about the topic of this post, but I honestly can't even think of what to say about cancer making children sick.

Rated PG

Childhood cancers made up less than 1% of new cancer cases in 2014. The five-year (relative) survival rate is 83%¹, and while these stats sound like good news, cancer is responsible for more deaths than any other disease within the 1-19 age group. One in four children diagnosed with cancer will die of the disease².

What The Fudge

Cancer does not affect adults and children the same way; first, the distribution of cancer types differs among children (age 0 - 14): while adults are predominantly affected by breast, lung, prostate, bowel and bladder cancers², childhood cancers consist most commonly of leukemia (32%), lymphoma (11%) and cancers of the central nervous system (including brain tumours, 19%), neuroblastoma and tumours of the peripheral nervous system (8%), soft tissue (6%), kidneys (5%), and bone(4%). In addition, tumours of children's cancers tend to grow quickly and spread, not to mention the enormous impact a cancer diagnosis has on the child and his/her family³...

A daffodil for childhood cancer awareness

More about the impact on the family in the next post...

For The Little Ones...

My mother helped me with my childhood cancer diagnosis; let's help other families do the same.

¹ http://www.crs-src.ca/page.aspx?pid=1719 "Children and young adults' cancers"
² www.childhoodcancer.ca/education/facts_figures "Facts and Figures"
³ Canadian Cancer Society’s Advisory Committee on Cancer Statistics. Canadian Cancer Statistics 2014. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society; 2014. Link to document: cancer.ca/statistics

"And though she be but little, she is fierce..." - Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream