- Target:
- Department of Health
- Region:
- United Kingdom
Did you know that the color Gold represents Childhood cancer?
We are asking for three things:
AWARENESS for childhood cancer is very low in the UK. So much so that children are sent home daily from GP surgeries and hospitals without a diagnosis. Late diagnosis is causing us to lose too many children to this disease. Cancer in children is not as uncommon as you think. All parents and carers of young children should be given a list of the tell tale signs of childhood cancer. Why is this not on the NHS Direct website that many of us parents consult when our children are sick? Why is nothing written in our children’s Red health books?
FUNDING for childhood cancer is lower than other cancers and no new drugs have been found in years. Treatment to save these children’s lives is often intrusive and aggressive and the medicines old and outdated. Many countries outside of the UK have higher numbers of children being cured and a lower mortality rate. A lot of the treatments we are forced to use make our children sicker than the actual cancer itself.
SUPPORT hearing the words “your child has cancer” draws you in to a completely different world. A world of loneliness and often confusion. So many charities offer holidays and day trips. What about someone to talk to throughout treatment, not just at the start? Lots of places offer support to adults with cancer but where do we get this help when it’s our children?
We, the undersigned, call on the Department of Health to increase funding in order to promote awareness and conduct more research in to childhood cancers.
We would also call on them to improve vital support services needed by these families.
We believe this will help children to be diagnosed faster and this will in turn reduce the number of children who die.
The Create a greater awareness of childhood cancers and their symptoms petition to Department of Health was written by Charmaine Green and is in the category Health at GoPetition.