This month is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and PeoplePledge is helping to spread the message out about it in order to help more Australian families who have children with childhood cancer.
What Is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month?
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is a month that has been assigned as a month to help create greater awareness and education about childhood cancer in Australia. It provides vital information for parents, support for children with cancer and looks for community support for families affected by childhood cancer.
How Common Is Childhood Cancer in Australia?
In Australia, one in five Australian children will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of only 15 years old. From the research, this adequate to 600 children in Australian every year will develop a form of childhood cancer. Sadly, childhood cancer remains the most greatest cause of death for children in Australia. It is found that 3 Australian kids die from cancer every week. However, it is important to note that with new medical research, childhood cancer survival rates have increased to 80 percent within the last few years. There are still some forms of childhood cancers such as Brain tumours and Neuroblastoma that have a much lower survival rate of about 50 percent.
Why Is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month Important?
In Australia, we have the highest incidences of childhood cancer across the world. This means that more Australian children are diagnosed and possibly die from cancer compared to other countries in the world. Creating greater awareness of childhood cancer and the importance of research can help save lives in the future.
In addition to this, it can provide much needed support to Australian families who are dealing with children with childhood cancer. Children with childhood cancer can develop chronic medical conditions later down the track, creating more problems and expenses for families.
Community understanding of childhood cancer is important as there are many long term effects experiences where community support can be helpful. Due to long and intensive treatment regimes, children who have childhood cancer can have a range of problems such as hormonal deficiencies, infertility and secondary cancers.
A common misconception in the general public is that children who survive a type of childhood cancer, are as a result healthy for the long term and are deemed as ‘cancer free’. However, it has been found that children who are survivors of childhood cancer have 20 times greater risk in developing a second form of cancer later on.
How Can I Get Involved?
There are a large number of events running throughout Australia, particularly small events that works to create greater awareness and education about childhood cancer in Australia. You can also get behind an Australian family that you know of who is experiencing difficulties financially due to childhood cancer and start a fundraiser at PeoplePledge. Funds can be used to cover medical expenses, or other associated costs that have impacted the immediate family and the well-being of the child with childhood cancer. For more information or to sign up for free, go to www.peoplepledge.com.au.