Yesterday, February 15th, was International Childhood Cancer Awareness Day. Many amazing awareness campaigns took place, and two in particular are so brilliant I have watched their youtube videos several times over:
–TheTruth365: A National Movement
I am honoured to have been able to take part in sharing and promoting these awareness campaigns.
Awareness is crucial.
Too many people still don’t know the facts about childhood cancer.
It is considered rare, and statistically speaking, it does fall into the rare diseases category.
But childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children. The number one cause.
To me, that’s not rare.
Getting struck by lightning is rare.
Winning the lottery is rare.
The number one cause of death by disease? Not rare.
What are the odds of a child having cancer before he turns 20? Try to guess at the answer, I’ll give you a hint: it’s either one in 300, one in 3000 or one in 30000 kids will be diagnosed with cancer before they turn 20.
Stumped? Or you kind of have guessed but can’t really believe it because it just seems so… un-rare?
That’s right, it’s one in 300.
Here in our very tiny country of Switzerland, which is so small it would fit into one of our Great Lakes in Canada (possibly the tip of an alp might stick out here or there), one child dies of cancer every week.
Not rare.
And yet, most people still don’t know about it.
Which is why raising awareness is so important. February 15th is childhood cancer awareness day, and September is childhood cancer awareness month. (Nobody in the childhood cancer community is quite sure why there are two awareness moments, but we’re going with it.)
Now let’s talk about action.
Yesterday, on February 15th, you became aware. Today, on February 16th, and every day after, you take action.
Awareness must lead to action.
The founding members and supporting organizations of Unite2Cure have an action plan in order to change the way research into childhood cancer is prioritized. We have a plan to turn this amazing awareness into action.
The time for action is now. Share this post, share this page, sign the petition, and stay tuned for the next step.
Nicole Scobie 