Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
September was proclaimed National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in 2012 to bring awareness to pediatric cancer. Learn how you can help St. Jude find cures.
St. Jude patient Keeton
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month was designated to bring awareness to childhood cancer, which remains the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 15.
St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Childhood cancer statistics, and what makes St. Jude unique
Cancer kills more children in the United States than any other disease.
St. Jude creates more clinical trials for childhood cancer than any other children's hospital in the U.S.
Between 180,000 and 240,000 children are diagnosed each year with cancer.
Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90%, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.
About 420,000 adults in the U.S. are childhood cancer survivors.
St. Jude is often where doctors send their toughest cases, because we have the world's best survival rates for some of the most aggressive childhood cancers.
Our care doesn’t end when treatment is finished — St. Jude follows our patients for life. We’re learning and sharing insights from yesterday’s patients to improve care today.
Learn more about childhood cancer.
Why your support matters
Because the majority of St. Jude funding comes from individual contributors, St. Jude has the freedom to focus on what matters most — saving kids regardless of their financial situation.
Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
Ways to help during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Let's end childhood cancer. Together.
St. Jude patient Keeton - Learn more about Keeton.
Help St. Jude end childhood cancer
Your support will help find cures for childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Every year, thousands of children across America are diagnosed with cancer, an often life-threatening illness that remains the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 15. The causes of pediatric cancer are still largely unknown, and though new discoveries are resulting in new treatments, this heartbreaking disease continues to scar families and communities in ways that may never fully heal. This month, we remember the young lives taken too soon, stand with the families facing childhood cancer today, and rededicate ourselves to combating this terrible illness.
While much remains to be done, our Nation has come far in the fight to understand, treat, and control childhood cancer. Thanks to ongoing advances in research and treatment, the 5 year survival rate for all childhood cancers has climbed from less than 50 percent to 80 percent over the past several decades. Researchers around the world continue to pioneer new therapies and explore the root causes of the disease, driving progress that could reveal cures or improved outcomes for patients. But despite the gains we have made, help still does not come soon enough for many of our sons and daughters, and too many families suffer pain and devastating loss.
My Administration will continue to support families battling pediatric cancer and work to ease the burdens they face. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can no longer deny health coverage to children because of pre existing conditions, including cancer, nor can they drop coverage because a child is diagnosed with cancer. The law also bans insurers from placing a lifetime dollar limit on the amount of coverage they provide, giving families peace of mind that their coverage will be there when they need it most. And as we work to ensure all Americans have access to affordable health care, my Administration will continue to invest in the cutting edge cancer research that paves the way for tomorrow's breakthroughs.
This month, we pay tribute to the families, friends, professionals, and communities who lend their strength to children fighting pediatric cancer. May their courage and commitment continue to move us toward new cures, healthier outcomes, and a brighter future for America's youth.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 2012 as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I encourage all Americans to join me in reaffirming our commitment to fighting childhood cancer.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty first day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.