What does childhood cancer awareness mean to me? I may be biased, but I think childhood cancer awareness is one of the most important topics to be shared and recognized within the public eye. 

When you hear the words “child” and “cancer” in the same sentence, your initial reaction is a feeling of sorrow for the child who is dealing with such a terrible illness. From the child’s perspective, they feel 10 times more scared, alone, and uncertain as to why this is happening to them. No child does anything to deserve cancer. It simply just happens for no reason other than the cells in your body made a mistake.

Helping to support and bring attention and awareness to these children who are suffering through such a tough illness is one of the most proactive ways to help fight toward the next step in finding not only new cures to cancer, but also uplifting these children’s spirits. Doing this shows them that they have people who stand behind them and have their back. Being a child and having to worry about the “What if’s” in regards to their health and whether the treatment they’re receiving will be successful is something that nobody deserves to ever have to think about.  

Speaking from my own experience, having that support from my community during my diagnosis and treatments helped me immensely to find hope and positivity, and to keep pushing through whatever was in front of me.

Being able to raise awareness makes me feel so thrilled, as I know how impactful even the smallest gestures can make a frightened child feel heard, loved and supported through some of the toughest times of their lives. There are opportunities all around, it’s up to us to take the next step.

Bringing awareness to childhood cancer patients and survivors is so important to me because I know how special and cared for it made me feel during my battle, and without the support that I was given, fighting and overcoming the disease would have been near impossible.

 

About Adelaide
Diagnosed at 6 years old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), Adelaide is now 16 years old and a junior in high school. She’s had chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, a bone marrow transplant and two CAR-T cell transplants, one of which sent her into cardiac arrest in 2021. After three relapses and ten long years of fighting, Adelaide has reached remission! Adelaide wants her story to be used to bring hope and motivation to other children who are struggling with childhood cancer and to spread awareness to the world.

About Childhood Cancer
Each year, more than 17,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. While cancer names and types like leukemia or lymphoma may share a name with adult cancers, childhood cancers are different and often require different treatments. The average age at diagnosis for a child with cancer is 10 years old (for an adult it is 66 years old). Children who have had treatment and survive childhood cancer are 95% more likely than their peers without a past cancer diagnosis to experience a significant health side effect by the time they are 45 years old. Learn more about childhood cancer and the work Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is doing to make a difference here.