Sharon Johnson
CNHI
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Yesterday, 46 children were diagnosed with cancer. Today, there will be 46 more. Currently, one in every 330 children in the U.S. develops cancer before the age of 19.
Each school day, enough children are diagnosed with childhood cancer to empty two classrooms. On average, one in every four elementary schools in the U.S. has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are current or former cancer patients. We have several children in Thomas County, as you see in the picture above, who have battled and are still battling childhood cancer. Even after treatments are completed, the threats of side effects remain the rest of their lives.
About 4,000 children die from cancer each year. That’s 11 children every single day, every single year, and one of those children in 2010 was Thomasville’s Pyper Sellers, the daughter of Ricky and Amanda Sellers. Pyper battled leukemia from infancy until the age of 3.
Imagine, if you will, a waiting room full of children. There’s a mother with two young boys. One is a very healthy, happy little blonde boy looking for a toy or activity to play. His brother, however, is ashy pale with a Nike baseball cap secured tightly over his bald head. His body is very thin. His look is very sad, and my heart breaks every time I look at him.
There’s another little boy whose skeletal body and masked face reveal something is terribly wrong. He’s had to mature way too soon and faces struggles and challenges that little boys should not have to face.
Then there’s the mother with a newborn baby in one of those snuggly wrapped carriers around her shoulders. Will this infant ever learn to crawl? Will his or her mother ever hear those first words?
There is another adorable little girl in a stroller with rounded, steroid cheeks. She’s probably close to 2 years old, no hair on her head, and both the fathers and mother’s heads are shaved to match their child’s.
Also, there is another little girl, 9 years old, hair starting to grow back, struggling to walk from neuropathy from chemo, but she has a smile on her face and all the courage in the world. That little girl is mine, and her daddy and I are so proud of her! Her name is Julia Johnson.
Julia was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on March 13, 2009. She has been on chemotherapy ever since then, and it is scheduled to end July 2011.
When the oncologist from the Aflac Cancer Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta was speaking to us at about 3 o’clock in the morning, little did we know how our lives were about to change. Not only did our lives come to a shocking, immediate halt, but our priorities changed quickly and we were introduced to a world of childhood cancer that we were oblivious to.
I had always seen the TV shows about the children with cancer at St. Jude’s, but it was always “better” for me to just change the channel and watch something that wouldn’t make me cry. I cannot and will not change the channel anymore!
Throughout this cancer journey, we have had the privilege to meet and pray for some of the bravest children in our state. We have experienced and felt God carrying us and giving us a peace that only He can provide. Our lives have been changed for the better, and that is one good thing that can come from a cancer diagnosis.
Cure rates vary according to each specific type of cancer. Fifty years ago only 10 percent of children with cancer survived. Today, thanks to research, nearly 80 percent survive. What might tomorrow bring!
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), which is what Julia has, has a cure rate of around 80-85 percent. Forty years ago, the cure rate of pediatric ALL was 15-20 percent, and it has improved approximately 15 percent every decade since.
Think about it. As adults, we probably would not have survived leukemia in our childhood but, thankfully, and with God’s plan, Julia will.
All of these improvements have occurred because generations before us have given so generously to cancer research. Julia asked me once, “Mommy, why isn’t the cure rate 100 percent?” I knew then, that I had to do something to help. I often imagine a mother just like me 50 years ago with a child with leukemia. That mother probably lost her child, but maybe she decided to try and make a difference in the lives of future children. Perhaps she had a fundraiser that contributed to research that affected Julia’s treatment protocol today. I am forever grateful to that mother and all those who helped her in her endeavor to make a difference. I hope and pray that my family’s fundraising efforts may help to improve the cure rates and lives of children in the future.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Cancer research takes lots of money, and we can’t stop giving until we have a cure rate of 100 percent for every type of cancer. Did you know that childhood cancer research is the least funded? Only 2-3 percent of federal funding for cancer research goes to pediatric cancer. Cancer kills more children than any other disease. There are many very stubborn forms of childhood cancer which remain resistant to treatment. Cancers that affect children are different from adult cancers and are usually in a more advanced stage when they are first diagnosed. Eighty percent of children show that cancer has spread to distant sites in the body at first diagnosis. Only about 20 percent of adults with cancer show evidence that the disease has spread at the time of diagnoses. Children do not have screenings for cancer like adults do.
Join us and many friends as we try to raise awareness and funding for childhood cancer research. On Friday night, we will be downtown selling gold bows and hosting a lemonade stand. All proceeds will go to childhood cancer research. The gold bows will be placed on the benches along the sidewalks, your mailboxes, or your businesses. Please help us cover Thomas County with gold bows in honor of children with cancer. You can also contact one of Thomasville’s local florists for a gold bow. Julia’s story will be featured on Cure Childhood Cancer’s Web site on Sept. 18. Pyper Sellers’ story will be featured on the same web site on Sept. 16.
If you feel inclined to give in Julia’s honor or Pyper’s memory, please visit www.curechildhoodcancer.org, and go to “Cure’s Kids Conquer Cancer”. We will also be selling lemonade and other goodies and hosting a carwash on Sept. 18 in the Big Lots parking lot. Watch your newspaper in the days ahead for stories about some of our local children who have experienced cancer, and please consider donating so that in the future all children facing cancer can be offered a definite cure.
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