I became involved with Cancer Research UK and other cancer charities four years ago now. At the time I started my cousin Georgie was 17 and fighting his third cancer, osteosarcoma. His cancer fight started with his first diagnosis on his 2nd birthday and continued right up until his death on my 22nd birthday in April 2011. He was the sixth relative of mine to succumb to cancer. His death had a huge impact on my life and three years on I am still struggling with the huge hole he has left in my life. No one will ever fill it. He is simply irreplaceable.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a subject very close to my heart because of all we saw Georgie go through. This post is dedicated to my beautiful and much missed cousin and will hopefully raise some awareness.
The cancers seen in children are usually very different to those seen in adults and “childhood” refers to any child aged between birth and fourteen years old.
There are twelve main types of childhood cancer:
*Leukaemia
*Soft Tissue Sarcomas
*Kidney Tumours
*Brain and Central Nervous System (CNS)
*Bone Tumours (Like the one Georgie had)
*Carcinomas and Melanomas
*Retinoblastomas
*Gonadal and Germ Cell Tumours
*Liver Tumours
*Sympathetic Nervous System Tumours
*Other and Unspecified Tumours
Childhood cancer is quite rare and makes up 5% of all cancers. Around 1,600 children in the UK are diagnosed with cancer every year, which roughly works out at thirty one children per week. Around one in every five hundred children in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer.
The UK’s childhood cancer rates are amongst the lowest in Europe, with Northen Europe having the highest incidence rate.
Leukeamia is the most common childhood cancer. Two thirds of all childhood cancers are leukeamia, brain and CNS tumours and lymphomas.
Surviving Childhood Cancer:
More children then ever are surviving cancer. The survival rate has doubled since the 1960’s and at least 5,600 MORE children now survive for more then five years after diagnosis.
Around 33,000 people in the UK have survived a type of childhood cancer and almost three quarters of children with cancer can now be cured of the disease.
For every ten childhood cancer sufferers – eight will now survive for more then five years after their diagnosis:
*Nearly all children diagnosed with retinoblastoma are cured.
*Survival rates for Hepatoblastoma have doubled since the 1960’s.
*Around six out of ten children diagnosed with neuroblastoma are cured.
*Eight out of ten children with kidney cancer survive the disease.
*Rhabdomyosarcoma survival rates have doubled since the 1970’s.
Childhood Cancer Deaths:
Cancer is the UK’s leading cause of death (from disease) in children aged up to fourteen. A fifth of all childhood deaths are down to cancer.
Brain and CNS tumours are the most common fatal type of childhood cancer.
Around two hundred and fifty children die from cancer every year in the UK.
Childhood cancer death rates have halved since the 1960’s.
Causes of Childhood Cancer:
We don’t know much about what causes childhood cancers but there are several things we do know:
*Rare genetic syndromes such as Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (what Georgie had) can greatly increase a child’s risk of developing cancer.
*Children with Down ’s syndrome have a greater risk of developing leukaemia.
*2/5 retinoblastomas are linked to a faulty gene that has been inherited.
*Children that have had radiotherapy or chemotherapy in the past are at greater risk of developing a second cancer (As Georgie did
CLIC Sargent - Dedicated to Helping Childhood Cancer Sufferers
Being diagnosed with cancer at any age would obviously be a huge shock and a very emotional time but to see children and teenagers faced with their own mortality before they've really had a chance to live is horrific. CLIC Sargent focus on helping these children and young people as well as their families and loved ones deal with this bombshell, aiming to provide them with support to meet their needs.
CLIC Sargent do several things to help:
*They provide practical clinical and emotional support
* They provide grants and benefit information to help with the financial implications of cancer
*Lots of young sufferers require care in hospitals far from home so the charity provides free accommodation near specialist hospitals with their Home from Home service
*They arrange free mini breaks to allow families the chance to spend quality time together away from hospital and the every day reality of childhood cancer
*They provide over two hundred medical professionals including nurses and social workers to provide various forms of support for young cancer patients and their families.
*They have a wide range of practical and clear information on childhood cancer
I will be posting a lot more information about CLIC Sargent next week but in the meantime check out their website. The charity has a special place in my heart as they helped Georgie when he was sick. They are an amazing charity and we have a fund that raises money in Georgie's name https://www.justgiving.com/teams/georgepantziarkafund
Show Your Support!!
A gold ribbon is the symbol of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Please do show your support and buy one if you see them for sale. You can also email your MP from this link and ask them to do the same
action.clicsargent.org.uk//ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1883&ea.campaign.id=29853
There's a lot more posts to come about this throughout September. I hear so many horrific stories about brave children and young people fighting cancer. As someone who watched someone they love go through it my heart and love goes out to anyone in that position now. More and more children are surviving cancer and I can only hope my teeny tiny contribution to the world of cancer charities helps in a small way and makes my beautiful cousin as proud of me as I am of him.
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