September

You may wonder why September is so important to us...and to our fellow cancer families.  You may wonder why we put so much energy into planning and attending events.  You may wonder why we would want to remind ourselves, for a whole month, of what cancer took from us.  The pictures below are our "why."  Henry was seven months old when he died.  He had done nothing in his short life that caused him to get cancer.  He didn't sunbathe...he didn't smoke...he didn't use a cell phone...he didn't eat apples (I mean, it seems that just about anything these days can be blamed for cancer.)  His cancer can't even be blamed on heredity or genetics.  He just got cancer.  It isn't fair...he didn't deserve it.  None of our little fighters deserve it.  No one deserves it.  Honestly, I don't care if you smoked eight packs a day, I still don't think you "deserve" cancer. 

Now...October is just around the corner...and it seems, at least in my cynical mind, that the world turns pink for breast cancer.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think breast cancer doesn't deserve the attention.  But then I think prostate cancer should get the same attention...and lung cancer...and liver cancer...and blood cancer...and bone cancer...and, well, you get the point.  And childhood cancer, of all types, definitely deserves as much attention as breast cancer.  And, actually, maybe a little more.  The federal government provides a minimal percentage of budget to funding childhood cancer research.  Most children receive treatments that were developed for adults...25 years ago.  We hear the saying all the time...the children are our future...so why are we spending so little at protecting our future?  Why are we letting these childhood heroes fight, and struggle, and die?  Why do they not deserve the same attention and funding as women with breast cancer?

So, yes, September is important to us.  We may not be a big dog, but we are in the fight to bring awareness and funding to childhood cancer.  If we could spare even one family from the pain of hearing that your child has cancer, the pain of watching your child fight and suffer, the pain of watching the treatments cause more damage and delays to development, and the pain of watching your child die, then it's all worth it.  It won't bring Henry back, but maybe it will help someone else's Henry.  And, really, for us, that's what it's all about.  #gogold #allheknewwaslove