Bailey enjoying a day at the locks with her cousins who visited her in Seattle. (Thanks to Lynette Johnson from http://soulumination.org/home.html who took all of the amazing black and white photos of Bailey and our family. She was at the park with another customer but took a few minutes to snap these photos.
Bailey after transplant wearing her "Jesus' Little Warrior" hat. (Thanks Marsha)
Please, Please, Please take the time to read this and pass it along. Also please pass along my blog to everyone you know
http://baileyslegacy.blogspot.com/A few days ago my mom called to tell me that the teenage son of a friend from high school just died from cancer. He went in to get checked about some pain in his abdomen...within a few weeks he passed away. My heart breaks every time I get an email from a friend asking for prayers for a child and their family who are losing their battle against cancer. I get these emails way to often!! Parents who have lost a child to cancer soon find out the reality of why we still don't have a cure for our precious children. Most people do not want to hear about this...it is too hard. Despite the amazing amount of love and support that we received while Bailey fought against this monster and the continued tributes to our precious girl's memory...I find that when I want to talk about raising awareness about Childhood Cancer...people have a hard time listening. It is too much for them to think about. Well, I can't stop thinking about it...ever! When I hear about yet another child fighting for their life, it almost makes me physically sick. Watching my precious child fight so hard for over four years to live and then it isn't good enough, how do you forget that? How do you ever forget watching her go through endless procedures (bone marrow aspirates, spinals, blood draws, days and days of vomiting and diarrhea, TOTAL BODY RADIATION) and yet it wasn't enough to have her here to help me celebrate my birthday today. Not that many years ago people didn't want to talk about breast cancer and today...pink is everywhere! Please help us to get the same awareness for Childhood Cancer. Awareness=Change=CUREPleas read this letter that was written by Jim Lipski, dad to JJ (
www.icouldbeyourchild.org).
I sent the below to the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago as a hope for an OpEd piece. To date, I haven't heard anything back from them. In as such and you have the desire, please feel free to use whatever or all portions of it for your use.
We protect and value them as our most important assets. We clothe, feed and give them shelter. We educate them. We pray they can attain and aspire to a level in society higher than what we achieved. We see in them a future, dreams yet fulfilled, and the innocence long lost to adults. We buy car seats that offer an added level of protection while in our travels, a crib so that they do not fall while they sleep, and helmets when they ride their bikes. We keep a watchful eye on them while at play and an even more watchful eye while in crowds. We screen what they watch on TV and ensure they are protected from internet predators. Most of us would, without hesitation, give up our lives to save a child we don't even know from a burning building. Our society views a crime against a child to be the most egregious and is dealt with the stiffest of punishments. Even hardened criminals view sexual deviants of children with no toleration. They pull from and give us a love that is beyond measure. The raised arms saying "hold me" or the falling asleep on your shoulder. They give us complete trust.
So, why is it then, when the topic of pediatric cancer comes up, we turn away from the child? Is it that the mere thought of your child or grandchild attaining cancer as being too terrorizing, painful or unimaginable? We cry out demanding action for cancer treatment and donate millions of dollars every year for our breasts, prostate and other forms of adult cancer. The government places additional billions for research for these very same cancers. Cancers that, for the most part, have known causes and life giving treatments.
Yet, our voices remain silent for our children. Cancers that are entirely different than that of adults. Cancers that, but with few exceptions, have no known cause. Cancers that grow in our children's bodies that are not brought on by quality of life or age induced. Cancers that have a lower survivability rate than that of adult cancers. Some of these cancers having no known cure. Cancers that are grossly underfunded or researched.
We, as a society, remain silent. In this silence, we have violated the very trust the children have bestowed upon us and to which we accept. Instead, we turn away and refuse to believe in the possibility that our own child can acquire cancer. We deny and ignore it... Then, if your child is diagnosed with a cancer, the unimaginable is now a reality. Refusing to believe is no longer too painful or terrorizing to imagine. The thought process of "it can't happen to my child" is shattered. You can no longer reside in the state of denial. You cry out "Why isn't there a treatment"? "What do you mean there isn't a cure"? "I don't understand how this is possible"! It's simple. We refuse to acknowledge or protect our most precious assets. Instead, we focus on ourselves and do not raise a voice for those that cannot.
Children get cancer. It is a fact that each male child in the United States stands a 1 in 300 chance of attaining cancer by the age of 19. A female child, 1 in 333 chance. Compare this to a 20-30 year old women's chance of getting breast cancer at 1 in 1,837. Do you know that there are over 120 different type of childhood cancers and yet, all 120+ receive less than 3% of the budget allotted to the National Institute of Health for research whereas, breast cancer alone receives 12% and prostate cancer receives 9%. So, one has to wonder... when did we start placing women and men in the lifeboats before children?
Bet, you all know what the pink ribbon signifies and that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Did anyone even know that September was "Childhood Cancer Awareness Month" or do you even know what the representative color for childhood cancer is? I'll give you a hint. It's related to our most precious of metals... gold. Did you know that the average age for a child to get cancer is approximately 6. A women getting breast cancer is approximately 61. The average age for a man's chance at getting prostate cancer? 70. A life time multiplied by 10 and 11. Do you know that the 5 year survivability rate for childhood cancer is 78%? That means 22 out of every 100 children do not survive 5 years! 5 year survivability rate for breast cancer? 98%. 2 out of every 100 women. Prostate cancer. 99%. 1 out of every 100. A multitude of 20 children to every adult. And yet... nothing about the kids do we speak. The news does not report it. Corporation does not support it. Parents refuse to believe it.
The silence is deafening and this silence is killing kids.
Randy and I refuse to let everything Bailey went through be for naught. God has brought us through this and because of him we have the strength to continue to fight this fight until no more children have to lose their lives to this horrible to disease. Please help us!Psalms 33:18-19 "The Lord is close to those whose hearts are breaking; he rescues those who are humbly sorry for their sins. The good man does not escape all troubles-he has them too. But the Lord helps him in each and every one.God bless,
Kathy
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