Childhood Cancer Awareness

Please visit http://www.completethecure.com/ and click on one of the videos, or all of them. For each video that you click on and watch, corporate donors will donate .25 cents to pediatric cancer research. Take some time out of your day and do this for all the kids out there.

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September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month please pray for all the kids still battling.



Did you know that this month is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the USA. Here are some facts about Childhood Cancer and DIPG

• Cancer remains the number one disease that claims the lives of our children. Each year cancer kills more children under the age of 20 than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.

• Each year in the U.S., approximately 12,500 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer. That’s the equivalent of two average size classrooms diagnosed each school day.

• Brain tumors are the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children under age 20 in the USA. Leukemia remains the first.

• An estimated 3,410 children under age 20 are diagnosed annually in the USA with a brain tumor. DIPG accounts for about 250 of those cases.

• The median overall survival of children diagnosed with DIPG is approximately 9 months. The 1 and 2 year survival rates are approximately 30% and less than 10%, respectively. Radiation typically only prolongs life for 6-9 months; there have been no other significant medical advances for DIPG in the last 30 years.

• Because pediatric cancers are considered rare as compared to adult cancers, the market potential for a new drug is very small, and very few drug companies actively seek clinical trials for childhood cancer drugs. A government report in April found a “near absence” of research into pediatric cancer drugs. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, a non-profit group that advises the government on health policy, approximately half of the oncology drugs to treat children are at least 20 years old. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies do not test their drugs on pediatric cancers because they run a risk of failure with a drug that has been effective in the more lucrative adult market.

• Despite the grim prognosis for DIPG and lack of advances in finding a cure, there have been significant achievements for other pediatric cancers. Today, a child with cancer has an over 75% chance of survival. Breakthroughs in pediatric oncology will undoubtedly continue to progress the diagnosis and treatment of adult cancers. Many of the principles in therapy used today in treating adults were first developed and tested for children.

She travels within us

Our first day of school was today. She is not with us on our walk to school but she travels within us in all that we do. My hands feel so empty, and picking up the boys after school is so lonely. She would always wear one of her costume / princess outfits or ride her bike or drive her jeep. However painful this is we must find a new. A new way to go, and a new way to leave, a new way to live with her love. We can't share her physical love anymore so we are trying hard to learn how to love her in spirit only. Those words are easier said then done because as a parent and a human we are so used to the physical love. It is hard for the heart to not see or feel love physically. So we have to re-train ourselves slowly over time. This is an EXTREMELY PAINFUL process however the love and support from our friends, family, and community/ parish and school have helped a great deal.

We are in the process of sending out our thank you cards and I just want to say that if I inadvertently forget someone I am sorry. We just want everyone to know that we have recognized everything everyone has done. Caitlyn's last weeks and days where a true testimony of the love and support from the community at St. Theresa's School, our friends and family. No one could have had a better send off from this world than she did. From the cards that all the children made and sent her, to the lavish Disney party that was put together in her front yard.

One can only hope that when it is our time, the world around us comes out to say we love you and good bye the way all of you did for her. Her life was one to be celebrated and you all have and are doing a great job at that.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for holding her in your hearts. We know that she is waiting for all of you somewhere over the rainbow.

Thank you,
Churak Family