CaringWays Recognizes Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
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Every time our team sees a new CaringWays campaign launch, we feel a sense of hope that patients and their families will be surrounded by a supportive community that cares about their healing. That’s especially true when we see a campaign for a patient with childhood cancer. The diagnosis of cancer in a child can be a devastating blow to parents, family, and friends. In addition to helping their child cope with the new diagnosis, parents have to establish new routines, make countless medical visits, and face financial hardship, all while continuing to work full time, care for siblings, and handle everyday household responsibilities. A CaringWays campaign for a child provides instantaneous, tangible relief from the relentless experience of caring for a sick child.
In honor of September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we wanted to take a few moments to recognize the impact that childhood cancer has on families. Since cancer can hit any family at any time, we also wanted to highlight ways that community members can support patients and families after a childhood cancer diagnosis.
Childhood cancer impacts thousands of children and their families every year. Here are just a few statistics from St. Jude that are worth noting:
While these numbers highlight the heartbreaking reality of childhood cancer in America, it’s also worth noting that childhood cancer makes up roughly 1% of cancer diagnoses each year. This makes navigating childhood cancer unique, which can often leave patients and their families feeling even more lonely and confused.
One of the most devastating aspects of childhood cancer is that it has an immeasurable impact on children and their families. After a diagnosis, they can experience a wide range of emotions including shock, disbelief, fear, guilt, sadness, anxiety, and anger.
A carefunding campaign is one of the best ways to help a friend or family member after a cancer diagnosis. Here are a few specific ways that carefunding can provide hope and healing for childhood cancer patients and their families:
1. Help address the unique financial hardships that come with a childhood cancer diagnosis.
Childhood cancer patients and their families face unique financial hardships. According to this study in the American Society of Clinical Oncology Journal, childhood cancer patient families often struggle with particular challenges including “a lack of savings; competing financial obligations (eg, children, schooling); and limited access to comprehensive insurance coverage, including catastrophic limits on out-of-pocket spending.”
Carefunding helps mitigate the financial stress that comes with figuring out how to pay for high deductibles that childhood cancer patients often face.
2. Support the everyday burdens during treatment.
In addition to paying for medical treatment, families also have to find new ways to pay for their everyday expenses. The everyday costs and daily responsibilities can often pile up as parents are figuring out how to get proper treatment for their child while also putting dinner on the table every night. Starting a carefunding campaign can give families the freedom to focus on what’s most important — medical treatment and healing — during this difficult season.
3. Provide hope and help for their entire medical journey.
One question that childhood cancer patients and their families often wrestle with is, “How long will this be part of our lives?” No matter how long the journey is, a carefunding campaign helps support a family’s entire experience by covering other health-related expenses they face during treatment and beyond.
We’ve been honored to partner with cancer patients and their families to raise support for their medical expenses and daily needs. Here’s a powerful example of the difference it makes when someone decides to start a medical fundraising campaign for a childhood cancer patient:
Meredith Lay — Meredith learned she had a brain tumor when she was just 13 years old. Over the next few months, Meredith and her family found an incredible amount of relief from her CaringWays supporters in more ways than one.
Stories like Meredith’s are why we started CaringWays. We know what it’s like to navigate a life-altering cancer diagnosis. We built our platform to provide the help that patients and their families need most during treatment. While we long for a cure for childhood cancer, we also recognize the power of community to assist families during their medical journey.
If you or someone you know has a child that has been diagnosed with cancer and is looking to use crowdfunding to cover medical expenses, CaringWays is the best platform to provide tangible help during their time of need.
Learn more about becoming their CareChampion by setting up a campaign. For patients, learn more about how to start the process of setting up a CaringWays campaign.
