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How Does Our Program Work?
We serve over 100 children during the year in Central Florida, and we are always preparing for any challenge. We provide families a stay at Ronald McDonald House, or any similar facility close to the treatment center where a child is hospitalized. Our promise is that immediate family members who need to be close are provided for.We also provide patient aid in the form of:
• The Allotment Fund Provides financial assistance for food, gas, tolls and transportation to and from the treatment centers.
• The Emergency Assistance Program We help pay utility bills and purchase grocery store gift cards during crisis situations, possible during a diagnosis or relapse.
• Rainbow Parties Individual end-of-chemo parties in hospital and outpatient, as well as birthday parties for the patients of a family member when the patient is hospitalized.
• Prescription Drug Program Pays cancer patient’s out-of-pocket expenses for prescription medication and antibiotics for the siblings.
Also included in our program is personal care and concern for each individual patient and family. When a new challenge develops that we have not already provided help for, we go out of our way to make sure that we apply all our resources to solve it. We can’t eliminate all problems, but if we don’t try who else will step in? Our sincere efforts are made not only to serve during illness, but to improve the life of each child who is a patient with a cancer diagnosis.
We also accept donations and contributions from volunteers to be sure that our promises are kept. We communicate special needs to our members and keep the program lively and growing. Our kids know that your donations help!
If you cannot donate a sum of money please consider giving blood. Blood is always in critical need for young cancer patients and your blood could save a life. To see how click here.
Hope
In The Face Of A Devastating Diagnosis
Parents of children with cancer aare often young, have a limited income, and the have other children. One parent often needs to give up a job to take care of their child being treated for cancer
It is very important that all families facing a childhood cancer diagnosis have access to accurate information on their child’s diseases, treatment, and late effects. Families must provide more care themselves in these days of short hospital stays. Although the cure rate has jumped in thirty years from a meager 10% to today’s overall survival rate of almost 70%, childhood cancer remains the number one disease killer of children under the age of 15.
the Children’s Cancer Foundation, Inc. is a 501 (C)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose grants and services are funded entirely by private donations, foundation grants and corporate contributions. Your donations of time and financial asisistance, help us to provide hope to the youngest cancer patients in the US.
Blood Donors Save Lives
You can make a huge difference in the care of childhood cancer victims by donating blood and organizing your friends and family to donate as well. Donated blood is used for urgent needs and/or stored when earmarked for a particular child. Non-compatible blood is shared with the community. Alert the patient’s doctor that you want to donate and learn from him where to go. Blood is used for platelets, plasma and red blood cells. Most blood is used within 48 hours. Just imagine that you are saving and sustaining a life within 2 days when you donate. You should be proud to be so generous and sympathetic. Blood is always in critical supply.
(Some information in this article was taken from an article in The DeLand-Deltona Beacon newspaper, written by Vickie Pleus.)
There are 12 Major Types of
Childhood Cancers
Among the 12 major types of childhood cancers, leukemia (blood cell cancers) and cancers of the brain and central nervous system account for more than half of the new cases. About one-third of childhood cancers are leukemias. The most common type of leukemia in children is acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The most common solid tumors are brain tumors (e.g., gliomas and medulloblastomas), with other solid tumors (e.g .neuroblastomas, Wilms tumors, and sarcomas such as rhabdomyosarcoma and osteosarcoma) being less common.
In the United States in 2007, approximately 10,400 children under age 15 were diagnosed with cancer and about 1,545 children will die from the disease. Although this makes cancer the leading cause of death by disease among US children 1 to 14 years of age, cancer is still relatively rare in this age group. On average, 1 to 2 children develop the disease each year for every 10,000 children in the United States
Over the past 20 years, there has been some increase in the incidence of children diagnosed with all forms of invasive cancer, from 11.5 cases per 100,000 children in 1975 to 14.8 per 100,000 children in 2004. During this same time, however, death rates declined dramatically and 5-year survival rates increased for most childhood cancers. For example, the 5-year survival rates for all childhood cancers combined increased from 58.1 percent in 1975–77 to 79.6 percent in 1996–2003. This improvement in survival rates is due to significant advances in treatment, resulting in a cure or long-term remission for a substantial proportion of children with cancer.
The causes of childhood cancers
are largely unknown.
Environmental causes of childhood cancer have long been suspected by many scientists but have been difficult to pin down, partly because cancer in children is rare and because it is difficult to identify past exposure levels in children, particularly during potentially important periods such as pregnancy or even prior to conception. In addition, each of the distinctive types of childhood cancers develops differently — with a potentially wide variety of causes and a unique clinical course in terms of age, race, gender, and many other factors.
Possible risk factors suspected include diet, exposure to pesticides, toxins, plastics and other environmental elements … but in studies have not been linked to cause. However: chemotherapy for some forms of childhood cancer have been linked to an increase in leukemia (secondary cancers), as has AIDS, certain genetic syndromes and chromosomal conditions (such as Down syndrome), and high levels of ionizing radiation. This is a simplification of research that implies specific causes are linked to various types of cancer in children.
Children’s Oncology Group has also established a Childhood Cancer Research Network that creates a national registry of children with cancer. This initiative builds upon the unique NCI-supported national clinical trials system for treating children with cancer.
What efforts are being made to
fight cancer now?
- Pre-clinical trials (animal studies) of new agents to identify promising anticancer drugs that can be evaluated in clinical trials.
- Monitoring of US. and international trends in incidence and mortality rates for childhood cancers: By identifying places where high or low cancer rates occur, researchers can uncover patterns of cancer that provide important clues for further in-depth studies into the causes and control of cancer.
- Devices for more accurate diagnosis, novel therapies for high-risk neuroblastoma.
- Early clinical trials to test new drugs and new combinations of drugs so promising therapies can be tested nationally.
- NCI is currently undergoing studies to identify causes of the cancers that develop in children.
- Monitoring of US. and international trends in incidence and mortality rates for childhood cancers: By identifying places where high or low cancer rates occur, researchers can uncover patterns of cancer that provide important clues for further in-depth studies into the causes and control of cancer.
- Studies to better understand the biology of childhood cancer, with the hope that this understanding will lead to new treatment approaches that target critical cellular processes required for cancer cell growth and survival
- Evaluations of new drugs that may be more effective against childhood cancers and that may have less toxicity for children
- More information can be found at www.cancer.gov
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