Imagine this: you are a parent whose child has just been diagnosed with cancer. Doctors assure you that everything will be done to try and save your child’s life—they order every kind of test, scan, and medication in the book.
But what you may not know in this instance is that only 4 percent of the government’s federal spending for cancer research is dedicated to the research and treatment trials for all childhood cancer cases. Are our children really only worth 4 percent?
Let’s take a look at the division of the government’s spending on cancer: roughly 50 percent of it goes to breast cancer, 46 percent goes to lung cancer, testicular cancer, and other non-childhood variations, and a mere 4 percent goes to ALL types of cancer that primarily victimize children.
While all occurrences of cancer, in a child or an adult, are unfortunate, the federal government doesn’t see that the lack of funding for childhood cancer contributes to rising death rates due to its various types. Not to mention, most of the causes of childhood cancers are unknown due to the lack of research. What this says to Americans is that adults fighting cancer take a higher importance than children battling for their lives against an almost insurmountable monster of the same name—cancer.
Over the last 20 years, incidences of invasive childhood cancers have risen by 29 percent (228,000 new cases in the last two decades). This equals out to 13,500 new diagnoses of cancer in children each year, with over 20,000 more currently in active treatment. Speaking of treatments, only one new drug has been developed in this same 20-year time frame, while some treatment protocols haven’t changed in over 30 years.
The average age of death for a child with cancer is 8. The short lives of children with cancer are all too often spent being poked and prodded with needles in a hospital where they spent most of their days. Is this fair? Clearly not.
The average age of diagnoses for a child is 6, while that of an adult is age 67. Adults, on average, lose about 15 years of life to an early cancer death, while children typically lose 71 years. Essentially, children with cancer lose an entire lifetime. Children lost to cancer never get to experience growing up, getting married, having a family, or any of the other joys that can come along with growing up.
Because of a lack of federal funding, parents rely heavily on cancer charities such as St. Baldrick’s, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Treatment, travel, and accommodation costs pile up quickly for these families because they are willing to do anything to get their child the best treatment at the top medical facilities in America.
Organizations like the ones listed above provide money, lodging, food, and counseling services to these families to make up for the lack of consideration that the government gives them. All of these non-profit childhood cancer organizations rely solely on the kindness of others to continue their mission of one day no child having to fight for his or her life against cancer. They depend on donations from the general public to continually provide these services to those who so critically need them.
I personally have had the dream of working in pediatric oncology as a nurse for years because I believe these children deserve more. They deserve the best possible medical personnel attending to their cases because they should not have to fight alone. They are worth more than 4 percent.
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