Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation National Office: Childhood Cancer Month


			Childhood Cancer Month

Friday, September 05, 2008

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

The purpose of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is to bring attention to childhood cancer and survivorship issues across the continent. Candlelighters asks its members and friends to contact local media outlets to bring these matters to the attention of the press. Although it has historically been hard to get articles about childhood cancer in newspapers and magazines, we think that personalized letters from parents in individual communities might help turn the tide.

Below is a letter template that you can personalize and send to local newspapers, and radio and television stations. We suggest that you send it to the health reporter for your media outlet. That person's email address is usually in the newspaper or on the paper's or station'swebsite. If not, a telephone call should give you the information.

A follow up call the next week will ensure that it arrived. If the reporter decides not to write a story, ask if he/she has any suggestions of getting this story covered.

Candlelighters would be glad to provide names of experts in the field if the reporter would like to speak to them for background information or quotes.

Thanks you or taking the time to help us elevate survivorship issues nationally.

Template

A Microsoft® Word document is available for modification by clicking here.

You may also copy and paste from below...

Dear (reporter),
Treatment of childhood cancer is one of modern medicine's success stories. Thirty years ago, few children with cancer lived, but now almost 75% are cured of their disease. However, for the 250,000 survivors of childhood cancer living in the U.S., life can come at a high price. The surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy used to cure children sometimes affects growing bodies and developing minds.
Survivors of childhood cancer have an eleven times higher mortality rate than the general population, researchers in the U.S. and five Scandinavian countries recently discovered (July 1, 2001, Journal of Clinical Oncology). This study quantifies what families of survivors have known for years: problems can arise long after the cure.
Some examples of late effects after cure from childhood cancer are:

Breast cancer at an early age in female Hodgkin's survivors who received radiation to their chest when children or adolescents. Their risk is about 15 to 20 times that of their peers who have not had Hodgkin's disease.
Heart disease after treatment with chemotherapy (anthracyclines) or high-dose chest radiation.
Learning disabilities in survivors treated with radiation and/or chemotherapy to the brain.
Second cancers related to chemotherapy drugs or radiation used to cure the first cancer. Survivor’s risk is over 6 times that of their peers who have not had childhood cancer.
Symptoms of posttraumatic stress syndrome in survivors and their parents.
Infection with the hepatitis C virus in survivors who received transfusions prior to 1992.

My child (fill in personal info)
Most of the survivors of childhood cancer in this country do not get follow-up care from physicians familiar with the range of potential late effects. In fact, few oncologists specialize in the late effects after cancer, and there are simply not enough of them to care for the many thousands of children who survive every year. Therefore, survivors and their families are in desperate need of accurate information.
Would you consider writing a piece for publication in September--Childhood Cancer Awareness Month? An article on the price of survivorship, with resources for emotional and medical help, would be of tremendous value. This September, families from all over the country are staging events similar to Washington DC’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Days (http://www.childhoodcancerawareness.org/).
Please help give survivors of childhood cancer the information they need to live.
Suggested resources are:

(fill in name of closest comprehensive clinic for long-term survivors, obtain from www.acor.org/ped-onc/treatment/surclinics.html)
"Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Practical Guide to Your Future" by Keene, Hobbie, Ruccione
The online support group for survivors at the Association of Online Cancer Resources (www.acor.org/ped-onc/survivors/)

Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,

September 2007

A Lion in the House offers a community service kit for young people who want to advocate for Childhood Cancer. Click on the banner below to go to the My Lion web site.