There is a little boy we know who has an indomitable spirit, insatiable curiosity and enchanting character. He also has neuroblastoma. It’s a big word for such a little kid. A word that changed Liam’s life when he was diagnosed with the disease at only 2 years old. Now 4, he’s still battling the cancer that only 30% of kids survive. Not only because it’s a deadly disease, but also because it’s a disease that is underfunded. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? That the odds of survival are directly related to how little money is being spent on research by both the government and the pharmaceutical industry? Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 18. Liam’s mom and dad, Gretchen and Larry found it unfathomable that developing new and better treatments wasn’t a priority. So they made it theirs. To save their son.
How? They started to bake. And bake. Cookies to be exact. Hundreds of them. Well, actually thousands. 96,000. And people started to buy them. In 3 weeks, all those cookies sold out. And Cookies For Kids Cancer was born.
Bake sales have abounded from coast to coast. The website at www.cookiesforkidscancer.org inspires people to “Be A Good Cookie” by purchasing cookies or baking them. Cookies For Kids Cancer has been featured on CBS, in the Wall Street Journal and of course, Cookie Magazine.
Gretchen and Larry aren’t the kind of people to sit back. So as Liam fights, so do they. Because something as simple as a cookie could save lives.
Now that’s human potential.
Some facts:
Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is not about one child or one type of pediatric cancer. It is about improving the survival rates for all pediatric cancers. Important statistics to know:
· There has not been a new drug developed specifically for pediatric cancer treatment in nearly 2o years.
· The treatments most children receive today were created for adults and have not been proven truly safe for children.
· If children survive the initial treatments, they are often left with other life threatening conditions from the aggressive treatments intended to save them.
· The survival rates for pediatric cancers have improved from where they were in the 80′s when very few children survived at all.
· The unfortunate reality is that progress has all but stalled and survival rates lag behind most adult cancers. Breast cancer for example now has survival rates over 90%.
You can join Cookies For Kids Cancer on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cookiesforkidscancer, our Prince Liam The Brave Facebook group at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5255929453&ref=ts and follow Liam’s blog at www.princeliamthebrave.blogspot.com/
