Healthy SA: Non-profit program aims to fight childhood cancer

SAN ANTONIO – An American child is diagnosed with cancer every 36 minutes. Although it is a terrible disease, there is still a lot of hope. As we report today in Healthy SA, more research into fighting cancer is urgently needed, particularly when it comes to children whose lives are being cut too short.

As treatment progresses, nearly nine out of 10 children diagnosed with cancer survive for five years or longer. That's a big improvement from the 1970s, when the survival rate was much lower at 58%, but these numbers need to continue to rise.

“My mother took me to a doctor because I had low energy. She thought I had strep throat,” but shortly after that appointment, 12-year-old Raynie Clark said her vitals collapsed and she discovered she had a potentially fatal illness.

“I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This is a type of cancer in the blood and bone marrow,” Clark said.

Some of the risk factors for childhood cancer are lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, diet and exercise. Environmental effects such as radiation exposure. Changes in DNA as cells grow, which can be a cause of cancer. Inherited gene mutations rather than mutations acquired after birth.

Hyundai's nonprofit Hope On Wheels program aims to help eradicate childhood cancer. Hyundai Motors' Kevin Reilly told KENS 5, “Because it allows us to put more resources into the hands of brilliant researchers who have a million different ideas about how to solve childhood cancer, but just don't have the money to do it.”

According to the American Childhood Cancer Organization, nearly 16,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with cancer each year. These children are between birth and 19 years old. About one in 85 children in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer before their 20th birthday.

Clark has this message for children who are going through something similar to her.

“It takes both sunshine and rain to make rainbows. And to me hope means something like the warm ray of sunshine that peeks through the clouds after a rain shower,” she said.