MindiTheMagnificent: December 2011

Guest post for Peach's Neet Feet. What an amazing organization, supporting kids diagnosed with cancer. Love them!!! Love, love, love....

"I personally look forward to the day when, overcoming the number one disease killer of children, will be a national health priority everyday of the year - not only in September." ~ Kathleen Ruddy, Executive Director, St Baldrick's Foundation

Every weekday in the United States, 46 families hear these words: "Your child has cancer."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009, our family heard these words. Our youngest, Gregory, was diagnosed with Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia. At the tender age of three. His only option for survival was a bone marrow transplant.

From that fateful day forward, I have networked, read about, learned about, talked with, met and learned from family after family after family affected by childhood cancer.

I have experienced and witnessed the devastation that this diagnosis brings to families and their children. Every ounce of your existence is shattered. Bringing you to places you never thought you could/would go.

Watching the barbaric ways we treat cancer in our children. Experiencing the isolation that this diagnosis and treatment brings. Breathing through wave after wave of anxiety as each day, week, month passes.

When Gregory was first diagnosed, my knowledge of cancer was cursory. My thoughts were: "A little bit of chemo and you're good." Oh how wrong my naive mind was.

These kids experience months and years of toxic therapies. Chemotherapy may rid a child's body of cancer, but did you know that it also causes cancer? Did you know that radiation causes cancer? Did you know that these kids face life long complications?

People Against Childhood Cancer

One in five children/teens diagnosed with cancer do not survive.
Three of the four survivors face at least one life-long, chronic, life threatening condition.
These children are frequently left infertile.
They face neurological and developmental deficits.
Growth Failure
The average life span for a childhood cancer survivor is 30 years post diagnosis.

The list goes on and on and on. While my son, Gregory, is surviving, it has come with a significant price tag.

I am one of the 46. I am one of 46 Mommas Shave For The Brave.

In September of this year (2011), I joined 45 other Momcologists (Mothers of children diagnosed with cancer), at Union Station, Washington, DC. The 46 of us shaved our heads for childhood cancer research and awareness for The St Baldrick's Foundation. We have been tirelessly raising awareness and fundraising for St Baldrick's to fund life saving childhood cancer research. As of the time of this entry, we have raised $333,200 for St Baldrick's in 2011.