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, There are 12 major types of childhood cancer with more than 10,000 children and teenagers being 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 2,000 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 telling 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 survival rate has increased dramatically over the past 20 years from 58.1 percent to 79.6 percent for children more than for any other age group due solely to advanced research in this area; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia is fortunate to have two of the top children's cancer hospitals in the world, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, who continuously advance the study and treatment of childhood cancer; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby recognizes September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in honor of childhood cancer patients, care givers, survivors and those children who have succumbed to the disease.
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