September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month

I'm a day late here - but I wanted to help highlight the fact that September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. Hopefully you will be seeing a few things pop out at you in the media in your area!

Here in Houston we will have our annual Back to School Bake Sale. Friday, September
17, 2010 at TCH the third floor foot bridge, 10 - 2! Can't wait! It has been a while since we had a bake sale. Let's fund the research to get our kids off treatment, out of the hospitals (off of homebound!) and Back to School! Our NB HOPE 5K FUN RUN/Walk was meant to kick off this month. We actually had a couple of local charities with walks in September - Candlelighters on 9/11 and BIG Love on 9/25. Candlelighters does family support, like provide parking tokens! I heart Candlelighters! BIG Love furnishes inpatient children with toys, games and love! We didn't want to compete with their efforts. So, we had our run in August.

There are a lot of things happening around the country. In a few days a St. Baldrick's Group called 46 Mamas Shave for the Brave will take the media by storm. This group of 46 Mamas from all over the country will be congregating in L.A. to shave to put Pedi Cancer in the spotlight.
Why 46??? That's how many children are diagnosed with a cancer each and every day.
Keep your eyes peeled for my pal Shannon from right here in The Woodlands. She'll be one of the mamas shaving. Shannon is Sean's mama. Thankfully Seany is two years off treatment for his Rhabdomyoscarcoma, but his mama won't stop!

Another Mama is spearheading a group to compete for the Pepsi Refresh $250,000 prize. This can be the easiest thing we all do to support Pedi Cancer Awareness month, CLICK HERE AND VOTE by entering "Arms Wide Open" in the search engine at the top right. Or, you can just text away...TEXT PEPSI
(73774) and then Text 102653. Arms Wide Open would donate 100% of the 250K to fund a new Antibody treatment for NB.

That's only a few things happening across the country. I will steal a paragraph from Jack's mom, Sarah here,as she promotes an upcoming golf outing, that helps explain us pedi cancer parents are always worried about fundraising for research. Research is the only thing that will make a difference in our survival rates!
"The upcoming event represents more than just another fundraiser; rather, this is where the cancer war is won and lost. We often think it's in the laboratory or in a hospital room, but really this war on cancer is won or lost in our hearts and minds right this very minute. We have learned over the last five years that it's money that gets the cure. That's it, pure and simple, down and dirty. As one of Jack’s doctors said, “It’s not science holding us back, it’s funding.” It is money that attracts the researchers and institutions to study a particular cancer to get better treatments . . . and get us closer to the cure. That's why the odds of survival are better now for breast cancer and for leukemia. It's because the money was raised for the researchers to do the work. That's it."

Anyway, thanks for your ongoing support on all of our fundraising schemes!
Happy September.
Lara