Got this from a fellow ALL Mom

evidently she's a bit fed up too. ;)

*September* is National CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH. How many of you Mom's fighting for awareness and funding for breast cancer know that? How many of you know that: Childhood cancer is the number one cause of death from disease for our children, killing more every year than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies and pediatric AIDs COMBINED!

According to Helen Jonsen, Forbes.com senior editor "the funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials has gone down every year since 2003, and is currently $26.4 million. By comparison, NCI funding for AIDS research was $254 million in 2006; funding for breast cancer topped $584 million the same year."

And BTW, that $26.4 million is for ALL types of childhood cancer combined. Childhood Cancers differ from adults, do not fool yourself into thinking adult research helps kids. It DOESN'T. But in yet another entirely unfair and unbalanced stroke of luck - pediatric cancer research *has* helped adults.

I realize all of you playing the breast cancer game, buying pink merchandise, and doing what you can to support breast cancer awareness are doing so with the best of intentions. Meanwhile though...children are DYING. Children who never got the chance to grow up to *be* an adult with cancer. Children who were robbed of their childhoods.

And on the off chance you're still reading, thinking "my mom/sister/friend went through chemo for breast cancer, it was awful." You're right, I'm sure it was - for the 3/6/9 months they endured it. Ask me about the 27 months of daily chemo my toddler had to take. Or about how many amputee children I know. Better yet, ask me about how many funerals for children I've attended. My friend's 4yo son was buried with full fireman honors...trust me, that will change you.

All I'm asking is that a) please allow October to stand for breast cancer - allow the children to have a few weeks a year in September to try to be heard. And b) please take a moment to really process that if cancer is hard for an adult...imagine how unimaginably horrible it is for a child. Can you parents out there possibly place yourselves in our shoes for just one minute?

- Alicia - proud mom to Warrior Avalon - leukemia survivor. She's one of the lucky ones, she merely has life-long debilitating damage from chemo - but at least she's here...

Again, not as a hand-slapping, woe is me type post - but a personal perspective on perspective. It is hard living every.single.day in the moment knowing that literally - at any minute you could be back at the hospital for who knows how long of a stay. The always on guard and living in constant fear, well, not even fear, but awareness, the hyper-vigilance, is incredibly wearing and makes you tired. Tired for daily life of petty stuff and stupid games.