March is Brain Tumour Awareness Month
Every year in the UK around 680 children and young people are diagnosed with a brain tumour.
We are recognising Brain Tumour Awareness Month this March to highlight the impact that a brain tumour diagnosis has on the lives of children and young people, and their families.
While there have been some improvements in brain tumour survival, the outlook for many of the high risk brain tumours remains poor. Sadly brain, CNS and intracranial tumours are the greatest cancer-related cause of death in children in the UK.
For those children and young people who survive their diagnosis, around 60% will live with moderate or severe neurological disabilities due to the treatments they have undergone. Unfortunately, treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy are not cancer specific and can cause damage to normal cells leading to significant long term side effects.
Children with Cancer UK fund several innovative brain tumour research projects, which will directly impact on survival and quality of life for patients. We need to continue funding this critical research and future projects to accelerate improvements to treatments and improve outcomes for all types of brain tumours. Your support today will help us continue this work.
World Cancer Day - February 4th 2021
This World Cancer Day, help invest in life-saving childhood cancer research
This World Cancer Day, 12 children and young people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer. That’s 4,500 cases per year. This year, it’s more important than ever that we don’t lose sight of the need for progress, even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More research into childhood cancer is urgently needed, so that we can help save more lives and develop kinder and safer treatment options.
Like so much of our lives, COVID-19 has had a huge impact on childhood cancer, and not just in delays to diagnosis and treatment. As a result of the pandemic, along with other research funding organisations, we have faced income losses of close to £5 million, which are expected to continue in 2021.
This means we may not be able to fund as many new research projects. This is vital and life-saving research that will help children like Lewis, who at the age of four, has already been through so much.
Lewis was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2018. He was just a year old. The doctors discovered a tumour that was a massive 13 cm. Thanks to treatment, it shrunk to 6 cm, but then the treatment stopped working. Thankfully, the tumour seemed stable, so we just had to watch and wait. 16 months later, an MRI scan showed that he had another tumour, so he now had one on either side of his abdomen. It was such a blow. He didn’t respond to chemotherapy, so was put on radiotherapy in February 2020. To make matters worse, he then tested positive for COVID-19, and spent two days in hospital.
Lewis’ mum Marie tells us: “Since recovering from COVID-19, Lewis has also finished his cancer treatment. It breaks my heart that he’s missed out on so much at such a young age, like making his first friends and having playdates. The future for Lewis is still unknown, but he remains to us a real superhero.”
So for World Cancer Day 2021 – why not get involved and spread awareness of childhood cancer and the urgent need for more research.
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month 2020
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month has drawn to a close, we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported us during this time.
We all have dreams of the person we want to become and what we want to achieve in life. For some children, those dreams are interrupted and sometimes shattered, by a cancer diagnosis.
We’re here to ensure that whenever a child receives a cancer diagnosis, they have the best possible chance of survival, whether that’s by finding cures and better treatments through the ground-breaking research we fund, or by helping to ease some burdens along the way.
We won’t let cancer stand in the way of a child’s hope for their future. Your support this Childhood Cancer Awareness Month helped give those children whose lives are put on hold and whose futures are uncertain because of cancer, the chance to live out their dreams.
💛 Your kindness is helping to make sure cancer doesn’t stand in the way of children’s hopes and dreams for their future. Pictured, are just a small selection of dreams that these children have for their future.
For more information on this years' Childhood Cancer Awareness Month head to our website: https://www.childrenwithcancer.org.uk/childhood-cancer-awareness-month-2020