September is quickly coming to an end and even before the last day of childhood cancer awareness month is over, ‘pink’ is already being promoted in the media. Magazines, advertisements, television and everywhere I look I am overwhelmed with ‘pink’. I understand raising awareness for breast cancer, I don’t understand the total lack of support or recognition of ‘gold’ and pediatric cancer. This evening while Tweeting to anyone who will listen to my plea to support childhood cancer, I came across a Good Morning America Tweet Special day coming up – GMA will #GoPink Oct. 1 to empower Americans in the fight against breast cancer. I have tweeted GMA along with many other shows, regularly about September being childhood cancer awareness month and I did not even receive a re-tweet. In fact, the ONLY celebrity who acknowledged pediatric cancer awareness is Mark Herzlich of the New York Giants who happens to be a pediatric cancer survivor himself. Everyone else has ignored my pleas.
So tonight on September 26th as I see a Tweet from GMA come across my Twitter feed, I find I am appalled and disgusted that children with cancer are the overlooked unsung warriors in the world of cancer. As the mother of a survivor, the co-founder of the Honeysuckle Foundation for Children with Cancer, the author of Alicia’s Updates A Mother’s Memoir of Pediatric Cancer and a spokesperson raising awareness I will Tweet, blog, write and speak until someone who can help me with this cause will listen!
September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness month, ‘Gold’ is its color because kids get cancer too!
Sometimes the remedy for being pushed aside (like you refer above) isn’t pushing back, it is taking a new path. There have been lots of hints over the past few years that ‘cancer’ is not something foreign, it is a real part of the cancer patient. So when the realization that the pursuit of advancements in genetics & quests for a ‘magic pill’ are barren, the path for childhood cancer (all cancers) becomes much clearer. Only then will the undeniable passion already involved be able to focus on a clear and achievable goal