One child with cancer is too many. It is that simple according to a local area mother who has a son who has been fighting the disease for three years now.
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is September and to highlight the campaign, Webbwood mother, Kayli Bond spoke out at the raising of the Childhood Cancer Awareness Flag at the Espanola municipal hall on Friday, September 22nd.
She says more money has to be spent on finding cures for childhood cancers.
Kayli’s son, Blake, 7, is still undergoing treatment for his leukemia three years after the initial diagnosis.
She is hopeful that her son will survive with few long-term effects telling the crowd her son is doing fairly well at this time.
Blake and Espanola Mayor Ron Piche raised the Childhood Cancer flag to mark the month of September Gold Ribbon campaign.
Mayor Piche says he has lost two family members to cancer.
“One of those was my son,” Piche told the 30 or so people in attendance. “I know how devastating this disease can be and it is important that we continue to fight it.”
Kayli pointed out only three per cent of all money raised goes to finding treatments and cures for children and that has to change.
“There are only three treatments available for children with cancer in Canada, and that cannot be acceptable either,” stressed Kayli. “I am hoping to see more research on childhood disease.”
Thanks to donors, the Canadian Cancer Society has invested over $50 million in the last 15 years, supporting more than 170 research projects to help children survive cancer and lead full lives.
And they have made progress.
Childhood cancer is still the number one cause of disease-related death in Canadian children past infancy, and two out of every three childhood cancer survivors will suffer long-term side effects from their treatment.
Although childhood cancers account for less than 1% of all cancers diagnosed in Canada, they take a significant toll on Canadian families.
The three most common types of childhood cancers are leukemia, cancers of the brain and central nervous system and lymphomas.
The five-year survival for childhood cancer is 83%.
The childhood cancer death rate has been cut in half since 1985.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Cancer Society says it is working on new and more effective treatments for childhood cancers and an increase in the number of children who survive into adulthood.
For example, Dr Cynthia Hawkins with The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto is searching for better ways to diagnose and treat childhood cancers of the central nervous system (CNS) – the brain and spinal cord.
Dr Hawkins met with international experts earlier this year to update the World Health Organization (WHO)’s classification system for CNS tumours. Based on her research, an entirely new diagnostic category was created, which is changing tumour testing around the world.
Preventing childhood leukemia from coming back is an important part of fighting the disease> Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer diagnosed in children.
Dr Trang Hoang (Université de Montréal) showed that abnormal stem cells that drive ALL growth were more resistant to chemotherapy than other leukemic cells, which could explain why some children relapse despite treatment. They also found a chemical that could wipe out these stem cells, offering promise as a new treatment approach.
Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer and most often affects children and adolescents. Once the cancer spreads to other organs like the lungs, it becomes extremely difficult to treat. Dr Donna Senger (University of Calgary) is studying how certain immune cells are exploited by osteosarcoma cells to help them spread to the lungs and how to block the spread. This work could lead to a new treatment to help more young people survive bone cancer.
Kayli and family is encouraging everyone to wear a gold ribbon this month to advocate for more funding to be spent on research geared to children’s cancer.
Photos; Blake Bond and Espanola Mayor Ron Piche raise the flag to highlight Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Members of the Espanola Express Junior A team came out to support Blake and his family in the fight against cancer. Photos by Rosalind Russell
