One of the most tragic things in the world is to have a child who has been diagnosed with cancer. September is actually Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, so your family dentist in Arlington Heights decided to have a fundraiser in order to donate money to the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital. For every “like” on our Facebook page, we would donate $1, and for every “share,” we would donate $5. We did this for the entire month of September, and thanks to our wonderful patients (and some help from Dr. Kics), we were able to donate $1,000 to UC Comer’s in order to help fund their continual research into innovative cures and treatments for all children’s cancers. We’re so happy that our patients found it in their hearts to support this cause, and it truly brought them and our team together.
In honor of this past September, we’ve decided to share a few facts about children’s cancer and how you can help put a stop to it today.
Childhood Cancer Statistics
- Approximately 15,700 children are diagnosed with cancer every year.
- That averages out to about 43 children per day.
- 1 out of 8 children with cancer will not survive.
- The number 1 cause of death by disease in children is cancer
- In the last 20 years, only 3 cancer treatments have been specifically developed and approved for children.
- Children’s cancer impacts all ethnic, gender, and socio-economic groups.
- The average age of children with cancer is 6.
- More than 40,000 children receive cancer treatment each year.
- 60% of children who survive cancer actually suffer from lasting effects such as infertility, heart failure, and even secondary cancers.
- Today, there are approximately 375,000 adult survivors of childhood cancer in the U.S, which is about 1 in 530 adults aged 20-39.
How You Can Help
Research for UC Comer’s is actually a cause very near and dear to us. Our patient, survivor and hero Theo Yianas received life-saving treatment for neuroblastoma from the phenomenal team at Comer’s, and he has now been cancer-free for 5 years strong! Our hunch is that Theo, being the excellent student that he is, will one day contribute to finding a cure so that no child or family will need to suffer again.
This was our second year donating to childhood cancer research, and due to the success of both campaigns, we plan on running this fundraiser every September from now on.
If you helped contribute to this fundraiser in any way, Westgate Dental Care would like to offer a deep and sincere thank you. Your effort, no matter how small, will help provide hope for those families who need it the most.
If you would like to help families who have children with cancer and bring about more stories like Theo’s, you can donate to UC Comer’s by clicking on this link.