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Childhood cancer....

ajflutie
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ajflutie Practice Squad

ajflutie

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Any dads or moms?.....of course there are...I hesitate to even post this, and moderators feel free to remove if it is inappropriate...but....

 

AJ, my 14 year old son, was diagnosed with childhood cancer on Father’s Day 2007. After several months fighting, we lost AJ on January 5, 2008. The past two years have been very difficult of course, but it’s been made especially difficult to learn about childhood cancer, and the perception that it is “rare”.

 

I’ve learned that childhood cancer is the #1 killer disease of our kids aged 0-20, killing more kids every year than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, asthma and AIDS combined. That the 75% survival rate has not improved significantly in nearly two decades, and that you can count the number of newly approved treatments on one hand. Federal and private funding for pediatric cancer research and survivorship is woefully inadequate. Breast and prostate cancer receive orders of magnitude more than funding than childhood cancer when calculated per person years life lost. In 2007 the NCI budget was $4.8 billion, with $0.17 billion directed to childhood cancers. Research is the key to better treatments and a cure. More funding specific to childhood cancer is desperately needed. And, explain this one to YOUR child, drug companies don’t find research into such a “rare” disease profitable.

 

In this case, “rare” is defined as 10 to 15,000 kids diagnosed every year. That’s two classrooms of children every school day, with one-half of one classroom ultimately dying from cancer. No warning signs, no unhealthy lifestyles.

 

Let me tell you something, it’s “rare” only if it’s not happening to your child.

 

Saturday March 6th will be AJ’s 17th birthday. A premier childhood cancer fundraising organization is the St. Baldricks Foundation . (As as aside, if you donate to the American Cancer Society, less than $0.03 is given to childhood cancer research for every dollar). St. Baldrick’s involves shaving your head to raise donations. I will do the head shaving if you will help with a donation. You can simply click this link to go to my donation page.

 

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/my...cipantid/387746

 

Here's a little something I wrote about AJ....

 

For the past two years, my right shoulder really ached. I called it my torn rotator cuff. It ached from throwing thousands of footballs to my 14 year old son, Alex John, AJ. Trying to lead him just right on deep post patterns, to keep up with his speed. And, after the last one every time (he’d only let it end after he made a spectacular catch) from catching the big lug as he ran and jumped into my arms, yelling "The Bills win the Super Bowl, the Bills win the Super Bowl!" Just us dreaming. It ached from trying to pitch as fast as I could so he wouldn't hit me, but he always did. It honestly hurt enough so I only slept on my left side and if I rolled over on it, it would wake me in the night. But I didn't care, how could I stop doing those things? I loved it.

 

My new problem is that over the past month or so, my shoulder has slowly but surely stopped aching. Now what keeps me awake at night is my broken heart. You see, I have no one to throw those passes to, no one to brush back anymore. Because AJ left us on January 5, 2008, a victim of childhood cancer.

 

Support St. Baldrick's so every other father's arm hurts, not his heart.

 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

Sincerely,

AJs Dad

AJtheBuffaloBill2.jpg

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