Packages of Hope - Awareness

Packages full of Love & Hope for children with cancer

Awareness:

One in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of twenty.
On the average, 36 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer everyday in the United States.
On the average, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are current or former cancer patients.
Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the United States.
Childhood cancers affect more potential patient-years of life than any other cancer except breast and lung cancer.
The causes of most childhood cancers are unknown. At present, childhood cancer cannot be prevented.
Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region. In the United States, the incidence of cancer among adolescents and young adults is increasing at a greater rate than any other age group, except those over 65 years.
Despite these facts, childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded.
For children between the ages of 1 to 19 years, cancer is the fourth leading cause of the death, and the leading cause of disease-related death. In fact, more children between the ages of 1 to 19 will die from cancer than will diabetes, asthma, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.
The incidence of melanoma, a typically malignant tumor associated with skin cancer, is increasing among children at a rate of 1.5 to 3 percent per year.
The overall survival from pediatric cancer is estimated to be 75 to 80 percent, the majority of which are considered to be cured. On the contrary, in the 1950s less than 10 percent of pediatric cancer patients survived.
The most common childhood cancers include leukemia, tumors of the brain and nervous system, cancer of the kidneys, bones and muscles, and cancers of the lymphatic system.
Estimates suggest 1 in every 450 adults is a childhood cancer survivor.
Childhood cancers are the #1 disease killer of children - more than asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and pediatric AIDS combined.
Childhood cancer is not a single disease, but rather many different types that fall into 12 major categories. Common adult cancers are extremely rare in children, yet many cancers are almost exclusively found in children.
Childhood Cancers are cancers that primarily affect children, teens, and young adults. When cancer strikes children and young adults it affects them differently than it would an adult.
Attempts to detect childhood cancers at an earlier stage, when the disease would react more favorably to treatment, have largely failed. Young patients often have a more advanced stage of cancer when first diagnosed. (Approximately 20% of adults with cancer show evidence the disease has spread, yet almost 80% of children show that the cancer has spread to distant sites at the time of diagnosis).
Cancer in childhood occurs regularly, randomly, and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.
The cause of most childhood cancers are unknown and at present, cannot be prevented. (Most adult cancers result from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, occupation, and other exposure to cancer-causing agents).
One in every 330 Americans will develop cancer by the age of 20. On the average, 12,500 children and adolescents in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer each year.
On the average, 1 in every 4 elementary school has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are a current or former cancer patient. In the U.S., about 46 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every weekday.