Perhaps the most devastating words a parent can hear are “your child has cancer.” The St. Baldrick’s Foundation estimates that every three minutes, a parent somewhere in the world receives this agonizing news.
Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children past infancy in the United States. Yet only four percent of federal funding for cancer research is dedicated to childhood cancers. And in the past 20 years, only three new drugs specifically developed to treat kids with cancer have received FDA approval.
For Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we asked the HuffPost Parents Facebook community if any of their families have been touched by the disease. In response, the parents of dozens of brave cancer fighters shared their children’s photos and stories ― and explained why all kids affected by pediatric cancer deserve #MoreThan4.
“Although these pictures do not represent the whole story, they give a powerful glimpse,” said Maggie Nokes, a 26-year-old childhood cancer survivor and Assistant Director at Expect Miracles Foundation. “These photos represent a need for change, a need for funding, and a need for awareness. Childhood cancer research definitely needs funding because that’s where we develop the cures.”
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Nokes issued the following call to anyone who will listen: “I ask you to please take action now, and before September and Childhood Cancer Awareness Month ends, make a donation to fund childhood cancer research or fund a childhood cancer patient care program near you.”
Keep scrolling to bear witness to 87 cancer fighters and their stories, as told by their parents.