Recognizing September 2011 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in honor of childhood cancer patients, care givers, survivors and those children who have succumbed to the disease.

WHEREAS, September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and every little bit counts: From visiting children's hospitals to donating teddy bears to making socks for little patients' feet, giving a little bit of your time is just as appreciated as giving part of your paycheck for the cause of researching childhood cancers; and

WHEREAS, More than 11,000 children and teenagers are diagnosed with cancer each year; and

WHEREAS, Cancer is the number one cause of death in children under the age of 14. Each year, approximately 2,300 children and teenagers in the United States die of cancer; and

WHEREAS, 1 in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of 20. Every school day, there are 46 children diagnosed with this deadly disease; and

WHEREAS, The median age of diagnosis for those children with cancer is 6, and unfortunately by the time they are first diagnosed, the disease has spread in 8 out of every 10 children; and

WHEREAS, The incidence of cancer among children has increased almost 20 percent in the last two decades. Despite research, cancer still kills more children than any other disease and the incidence of cancer in children is 15 times greater than that of AIDS in children; and

WHEREAS, Progress in the battle against childhood cancer is being made, with survival rates for common childhood cancer rising from 43 percent to 73 percent in the last 20 years, although children cured of cancer have an increased rate of developing a second cancer later in life; and

WHEREAS, You can help by tell your friends and family to find sponsored events in their area, start a support group, petition the government for help aiding in research, or merely make a donation in support of beating childhood cancer; and

WHEREAS, The cancer death rate has dropped more dramatically for children than for any other age group due solely to advanced research in this area; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby recognize September 2011 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in honor of childhood cancer patients, care givers, survivors and those children who have succumbed to the disease.

RESOLVED FURTHER, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to John M. Maris, MD, Director, of the Cancer Center and Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, as evidence of the respect and admiration of this legislative body for the work they do in their fight to find a cure for childhood cancer.

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