Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation: A Short Story

Throughout my educational experience I noticed the discrepancies with regard to the advantages my peers possessed. In high school as I began exploring what career I wished to pursue, I experienced inferiority as my classmates who’ve taken the ACT three times, visited college campuses, and have had resumes ready since the 6th grade unintentionally mocked my lack of college-readiness. However, my ignorance wasn’t intentional, my parents never reached a high school education in Mexico, they couldn’t pass down SAT tips or acquire internship opportunities for me. I realized it's vital to pick up the pace to avoid being left in the dust akin to countless others in my situation. Henceforth, this statement resonates with my experience, I interpreted

Kicker, a 3 year-old boy, who has never been to a doctor, never received any type of shot or poke, eaten a clean, nutrient dense diet throughout his short three years and never had anything toxic on his skin, was sitting in the cold hospital room waiting for news of a diagnosis. Nurses came in and out of the waiting room, bringing in needles, advice, paperwork and machines. All of which were intimidating to a 3 year-old and his mother, Season, who happened to be a holistic nutritionist. A nurse came into the waiting room and informed Season that an Oncologist needed to speak with her. At that moment, Season began holding her jaw tight to fight back the tears knowing that Oncologist specialized in cancer.

The importance behind this health issue is that major advances in medicine haven’t significantly improved survivor rates nor have medical advances reduced the number of cancer cases per year in children under 18 years of age (Curtin, Minino, Anderson, 2016).“Congressman McCaul is a father of five and knows that every parent’s worst nightmare is their children receiving a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Growing up, his childhood best friend lost his battle to cancer. It wasn’t fair then and it isn’t fair now. Congressman McCaul founded the Childhood Cancer

A child is usually portrayed as innocent and pure. Yamila, who is now 10, has been fighting cancer ever since she was 3 years old, when she was found to suffer from ALL. Yamila, whose family lived in Puerto Rico, underwent treatment at a local hospital. But the cancer came back. This time, her doctors recommended a bone marrow transplant and referred Yamila’s family to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. St. Jude invents more clinical trials than any other children’s hospital, which is why the world looks to St. Jude for new and better ways to treat childhood cancer. At St. Jude, Yamila underwent the bone marrow transplant, with her brother serving as her donor. “My daughter began riding her bike shortly after leaving the transplant unit,” said Yahaira, Yamila's mother. “The physical therapist would come to teach her some exercises, and all she would think about was her bike” said her mother. “St. Jude is a hospital where miracles happen,” Yamila said. Yamila portrayed a sad child’s life because after she recovered from cancer she got it

Childhood cancer is two of the most devastating words any parent can hear regarding their child. A child that was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1960s rarely survived and typically led to death. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital understood this concern. When the hospital was created the childhood cancer survival rate was less than 20%. Today, through research and discoveries the rate has raised to 80%.

It also offers information on helping children understand the disease and how to deal with cancer.

CancerFree KIDS Network is an organization that’s mission is to eradicate cancer as a life-threatening disease in children by funding promising research that might go otherwise unfunded. “Since our inception, we have funded 97 research projects resulting in nearly $3 million dollars raised,” Flannery said, “our funding goes directly to the research project where every dollar is accounted for.”

With the aim to raise awareness, support and push a movement and belief that one day pediatric cancer patients can be cured, Penn State students will gather for this cause. These students will not let cancer win, which is why they are not going to rest.

During her career as a pediatric nurse, she became very connected with a patient who happened to be her first death encounter. At the time, the patient was a six-year-old boy who was diagnosed with leukemia. ML said: "When I was caring for this patient, I was a mother myself. Seeing that boy and his family suffer gave me so much heartache… it was hard not to make it personal." The more she worked with this child, she observed the pain and suffering him and his family had to go through. She also learned about him and the family dynamics which enabled ML to help the patient and the family become well involved in understanding one another and guide care towards an agreement that everyone was satisfied with. As I reached for the tissue box to hand it to her, I rephrased the story to confirm the understanding of the story. She nodded and continued on talking about things she has done for the patient. Being a mother and a nurse, she believed in providing this child with what a healthy boy would be doing at his age. ML's strategies involved promoting short physical activities, playing games, and encouraging the parents to participate in such activities if possible; ML wanted to provide a lighter atmosphere around the unit and help the patient disregard the diagnosis even if it was just for a little while. Over the past few months, she continued to assist this patient as his

A pediatric oncology nurses care for children with cancer. They administer medications, record observations, communicate with doctors and parents and perform diagnostic tests. Dealing with terminally ill children on a regular basis can make this job challenging and emotionally draining. However, despite the difficulty of the role, helping children and their families by making them as comfortable as possible and offering emotional support can be professionally

While working at Tufts Medical Center this past week, I had the opportunity to help the oncology clinic with a donation and was introduced to Tony Stoddard. Tony Stoddard is the father of a 5-year-old boy, who passed away almost 4 years ago from neuroblastoma. Since his son passed away, he has been working to promote awareness of Childhood Cancer in hopes there will be more research and better funding for childhood cancer in the future. Stoddard brought boxes filled with toys, band aids, and other distraction tools to Tufts Floating Hospital. We helped by transporting the boxes from the parking garage to the oncology clinic. As we helped, he was able to tell me his story and his goals for the future. Back in 2013, he contacted various officials

One morning, I woke up and got an email saying I was going to be a teacher at Crawford Middle School, so I got ready and drove to the middle school. When I got there I went to the office and got assigned to the seventh grade science class. At first I was nervous because I had nothing at all planned for class. As I walked in all eyes turned toward me. I introduced myself and started to become less nervous.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the most common childhood cancer, but also, one of the most curable. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a blood cancer that affects the white blood cells which causes them to build up in the liver, spleen and lymph nodes. (St. Jude's research hospital) Another case, is about a toddler, named Mark, who wasn’t even two years old, at the time and had developed a slight limp. At first, the doctor’s were not concerned and had told his mother, Rita, that he would get better over time. But, she was not convinced, she was later referred to a specialist, who performed a CT scan. Which, later showed a tumor in Mark’s head. “The family received a referral and arrived at St. Jude in January 2010. At St. Jude, further testing was done and a discovery was made: Mark’s tumor was actually a very rare type of bone cancer, in the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors- not brain cancer as originally believed” (StJude.org) If it wasn’t for St. Jude or the mother then Mark may not have lived and be over five years cancer free. “It’s like a miracle. Everything is given to the family here for free without any expectation,” Rita said…. “I wish every nation in the world would have a St.Jude,” said Rita. “That way, everyone would have a chance” “ (StJude.org). This just shows how much it means to the families and the children. The place that

Ever since I was young, I’ve been passionate about helping others. Now that I’ve grown up, I’ve taken that passion to a new level. Little kids have always had a place in my heart. I’ve decided I want to become a pediatric oncologist. For those who don't know, it’s the branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children.

(Connective: Transition-Now that you’ve heard a little background information on childhood cancer, I’m going to share with you what St Jude does and how they are helping battle these