I’ve never totally bought into the idea the calendar tells us when best to celebrate or commemorate. I mean, I guess I’m basically on board with birthdays and anniversaries – that mark is logical, and there is generally little downside to observing them (though I would argue that we need to dote on those we love more outside of the days they were born or made vows). I can still see value in holidays like Mother’s and Father’s Days and Memorial and Veterans Days, though their scheduling seems more arbitrary and 24 hours of appreciation is woefully inadequate.
So it would appear to run counter to my nature to get behind a month-long recognition of anything. But pediatric cancer isn’t just anything. And some real, measurable good comes from illuminating it for 30 days.
President Barack Obama issued the first presidential proclamation recognizing National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September 2012, and reprised the signing in 2015 and 2016. And though it wasn’t until September 2019 that a resolution was introduced to Congress to recognize National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, it passed with unanimous consent.
Today, the annual health campaign known as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is organized by major health organizations to increase awareness of pediatric cancer and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.
Of course, these efforts take place year-round. But shedding a yearly light on the impact of childhood cancer – particularly for those whom it has not directly touched – permits more focused attention to the issue.
On any given day, for example, few people know that:
· Cancer kills more children in the United States than any other disease.
· At least 300,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year.
· About 420,000 adults in the U.S. are childhood cancer survivors.
· With increasingly better therapies, more than 80% of U.S. childhood cancer patients now become long-term survivors.
Here at the KLH Group, this cause – these kids – are literally always on our hearts. Through our clubhouse builds and other community engagement events, we’ve impacted more than 50 kids with childhood cancer over the past three years. It has been our honor to restore a bit of the playful ease and sparkle their illnesses have claimed, and our great pleasure to develop lasting relationships with them and with their families. And when they meet one another at build events, our clubhouse community grows. Many of these children are now in remission, and continuing to enjoy their precious clubhouses.
Of course, tragically, some of these young warriors have passed. Modern science has not yet eradicated childhood cancer altogether, nor assured the promise of its cure. Until that day arrives, we hope that the 30 in September work especially hard to enlighten, educate, and galvanize. They certainly will for us.