Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2008. As soon as Mattie assembled this foam pieced puzzle and then sat on it, I entitled it, "Mattie sits on top of the world." It is really quite amazing that with all Mattie had to accept in a short period of time he was able to smile and play.  


Quote of the day: Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth. ~ William Faulkner

Facebook and social media are lighting up the Internet regarding childhood cancer awareness. This is due to the fact that September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

Peter has been working on our Foundation's social media campaign and sent out these two images on Facebook and Twitter today. 

Based on the Institute of Medicine's workshop we attended in March 2015 and the soon to be released report entitled, "Comprehensive Cancer Care for Children with Cancer and their Families," Peter created this palliative care image that went out on Facebook and Twitter today. 

Last night, Fenway Park, which is the home of the Red Sox, went GOLD in honor of childhood cancer. As you can see they even changed their red sox to GOLD last night!

Each player held up a sign that read, "I go GOLD for...." and then a child's name was listed on it. 

Also note that every seat in the stadium held up a GOLD card! That is a lot of children with cancer being recognized in one night, and yet that only represents the tip of the iceberg of children who have cancer all around the Country. Since around 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer per year and there are close to 400,000 childhood cancer survivors managing the long-term late effects of the treatment. Of course there are children like Mattie, (four children a day die from cancer), who die and whose families are left behind to live with the aftermath of cancer.

A Gold Awareness Ribbon was painted on the grass of the ballpark. It would be wonderful if other major league baseball teams followed suit, and also went GOLD for childhood cancer.

The childhood cancer community is now signing a petition that would ask the NFL to go GOLD in honor of Childhood Cancer. This isn't an unreasonable request since the NFL wears pink in the month of October for breast cancer. 

Though I admit I am not a sports fan of any kind, I am very well aware of the impact that sports has on our society and how the image of sports influences minds and hearts. If NFL players wore GOLD, I have no doubt people would be asking why? Which would lead to a conversation about childhood cancer! For change to occur for our children, the public must be aware of the problem.......that children get cancer, that more needs to be done to enhance access to treatment, to increase research funding, and to provide access to psychosocial supportive services from the time of diagnosis, into survivorship or end of life and bereavement care. 

Peter and I did this today, and we hope you will do this too!!! Please consider signing the NFL petition. It is easy and it won't take more than a matter of seconds to complete.  

Click on the link below to sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/p/nfl-comissioner-roger-goddell-dear-nfl-please-support-childhood-cancer-awareness-by-going-gold?recruiter=373214528&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-custom_msg