Beyond My Four Walls

I realize that it's been awhile since I last posted anything, but that hasn't been due to neglecting the Awareness front!! There is a world out there, a big wide world! While that time has passed, there have been far too many kiddos whose Earthly journey has taken a Heavenly turn (among them a couple of the kiddos I met back in September at Aimee Dickey's Walk for Childhood cancer Awareness; beautiful boys, both of them - both far too young and gone too soon!!) They wear their wings and watch over us all, encouraging us to keep fighting!!

Now you might wonder what I've been up to otherwise. Well, presently I'm working on putting together a video (my very first attempt ever at this): it will be to raise Awareness for Childhood cancer, to show why we fight so fiercely and to hopefully inspire even more people to join and stand beside us in the fight!! It's been an ongoing project in my head but I took action this past week and got the proverbial ball rolling! I've been very diligently piecing this video together, asking permission to use the faces of beautiful Angels of varying types of Childhood cancer in a wide range of ages!! I'm hoping I'll have it ready to actually share before too much longer.

In the meantime, send up prayers for all the families that have been touched by Childhood cancer...pray for the Angels, the Warriors, the Survivors and the Yet To Be Diagnosed. Though none of us CHOSE to walk this path and take this journey, we take each step in FAITH as God allows our paths to intersect; at these intersections, we come upon people who become our family!!!

Remember, TODAY in the U.S.:
*There will be at least 46 kids newly diagnosed with some form of Childhood cancer (bringing at least 46 families to their knees and changing their lives forever!)
*There will be 7 beautiful Warriors who will draw their last breath here on Earth and become Angels!
*TODAY...WE FIGHT!!

Superheroes!

How can you tell if someone is a 'Superhero'?
Is it by the tights they wear?
Their cape?
Their super human strength?
Perhaps their ability to take on unlimited bad guys all at the same time and come out victorious?
Can you even tell just by looking?

Being a "Superhero" is so much more than just what you see in the movies:
It is...
Bravery in the midst of terror.
Strength in the midst of the unthinkable.
Courage in the midst of the unspeakable.
Faith in the midst of what seems impossible.

Your 'Superhero' makes dreams come true...
They lift your spirit when you seem broken.
They face incredible odds yet will not give in to defeat.
They draw from inner strength to look death in the eye and tell it "NO!" time and time again.
They care so much about others that it seems their hearts would have no more room, yet they love all the more.

They fight cancer, day in and day out; week after week, month after month, year after year...
Operations, blood transfusions, chemotherapy, IVs, bone marrow transplants, radiation, hospital stays-
they endure all of this with a smile, trusting God every step of the way, believing with the faith of a little child that they will get better.

Whether they are given a complete Earthly healing or they earn Angel Wings, they will always and forevermore be 'Superheroes!'
They will never be forgotten.
They will have touched, changed and inspired innumerable lives.
Their journey becomes your fight, your reason to find a cure.
In that one moment, when time stands still, you see your 'Superhero' flash before your eyes and you recall the names of countless other 'Superheroes!'

Your "Superhero" might be...
your infant
your toddler
your little boy or girl
your teenager/young adult
your niece/nephew
your grandchild
your neighbor's child
or...even someone you've never met.

Every "Superhero" has a "Sidekick" and even in being a "Sidekick" you achieve "Superhero" status.

You know who you are and you are my 'Superhero!"

Carla Hood
October 31, 2008
11:40 p.m.
©November 1, 2008

Allowing myself to be their voice!

Having already walked a mile (or perhaps more) in their moccasins, I’ve become a very strong advocate for the kids in this damnable war called ‘Childhood cancer.’ I'm a Long Term Survivor - 42 years and counting since I was diagnosed with Stage IV High Risk Neuroblastoma; so this is my way of helping the kids in the battle now by being their voice when adults in positions of power just won't listen!!
Here are some facts about Childhood cancer that you may or may not be aware of:
**Childhood cancers are the #1 disease killer of children - more than Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes and Pediatric Aids combined.
**One in every 330 children will develop cancer before the age of 19.
**The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 Billion.Of that, breast cancer received 12 %, prostate cancer received 7 %, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancers combined received LESS than 3 %.
**Childhood cancer is not a single disease, but rather many different types that fall into 12 major categories. Common adult cancers are extremely rare in children, yet many cancers are almost exclusively found in children.
**One out of every five children diagnosed with cancer dies.
**Common cancer symptoms in children - fever, swollen glands, anemia, bruises and infection - are often suspected to be, and at the early stages are treated as, other childhood diseases.
**Three out of every five children diagnosed with cancer suffer from long-term or late onset side effects.
**Childhood cancers are cancers that primarily affect children, teens and young adults. When cancer strikes children and young adults it affects them differently than it would an adult.
**Attempts to detect Childhood cancers at an earlier stage, when the disease would react more favorably to treatment, have largely failed. Young patients often have a more advanced stage of cancer when first diagnosed. (Approximately 20 % of adults with cancer show no evidence the disease has spread, yet almost 80 % of children show that the cancer has spread to distant sites at the time of diagnosis.)
**cancer in childhood occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.
**The cause of most Childhood cancers are unknown and at present, cannot be prevented. (Most adult cancers result from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, occupation, and other exposure to cancer-causing agents.)
**Nationally, Childhood cancer is 20 times more prevalent than Pediatric AIDS, yet Pediatric AIDS receives four times the funding that Childhood cancer receives.
**On the average - 12,500 children and adolescents in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer each year.
**On the average, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer.
**On the average, every high school in America has two students who are a current or former cancer patient.
**In the U.S., about 46 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every single school day. That's about the equivalent of two entire classrooms.
**While the cancer death rate has dropped more dramatically for children than for any other age group, 2300 children and teenagers will die each year from cancer.
**Today, up to 75 % of the children with cancer can be cured, yet, some forms of Childhood cancers have proven so resistant to treatment that, in spite of research, a cure is elusive.
**Several Childhood cancers continue to have a very poor prognosis, including: brain stem tumors, metastatic sarcomas, relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and relapsed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

(*Side note: Please check out Team Unite's website: http://www.teamunite.net)