September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Join us today, September 21, 2009 as CURE Childhood Cancer honors CURE Kid Joshua Metz. Join our fight as CURE’s Kids Conquer Cancer One Day at a Time! Donate to Joshua’s Fund.
Joshua Metz’s Story:
On August 18, 2003, I walked my small son into the hospital for an MRI I was sure he didn’t need. A head CT in June for eye symptoms and headaches had come back clear; still the pediatric ophthalmologist had ordered this scan. I helped two nurses restrain him so they could start an IV in his little arm. I held him and rocked him as he screamed and fought and gradually fell asleep from the sedation meds. I stood in a hall and watched the nurses carry my sleeping son into a large room with a giant machine and lay him on a table. I watched them hook him up to oxygen and all types of monitors and strap his body down. Then, they closed the door. I sat in our patient bay for an hour & a half listening to the strange mechanical noises of the machine scanning my son’s head and wondering how much longer it would take. When it was over, the nurses brought him to me. He was floppy, drugged, and belligerent as he recovered. After he had awoken sufficiently I walked out of the hospital with his young three year old body in my arms, convinced it had all been an unnecessary trauma and colossal waste of time. I couldn’t have been more wrong. About five hours later I answered a phone call I never imagined I would receive. It was a doctor telling me a mass had been found in my son’s brain – that he had a tumor. A tumor we would soon learn was inoperable. I honestly don’t remember much about that day or the following week, but I do remember the moment of realization when I understood our lives had been changed dramatically.
Joshua is now nine years old, six years post diagnosis, and currently two years off-treatment. Since diagnosis he has persevered through two tumor progressions, 128 doses of chemotherapy over two different protocols, and two and a half years of outpatient therapies to battle symptoms of the tumor and side-effects of the chemo. Despite the many challenges of being sick for so long, he has managed to grow and thrive through it all. We have watched him overcome so much and develop great compassion towards others who are suffering. Because Joshua’s tumor is inoperable, and chemo has only stabilized it, we know our lives hold no guarantees for the future. His tumor could progress again at any time. However, we have chosen to live with joy and gratitude – and hope for the future. CURE Childhood Cancer is one of the reasons we can maintain that hope. Throughout everything, CURE has been part of our support system. CURE has not only provided family and patient programs and services, but they provide hope through their dedication to funding pediatric cancer research. It is through this research our doctors will be able to offer better cures and treatments to our children battling cancer.
Joshua’s Mother
About September & CURE’S Kids Conquer Cancer One Day at a Time:
September is recognized as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This September, CURE Childhood Cancer has committed to raising awareness and raising money to help find a cure for childhood cancer in our lifetime and put an end to this terrible disease through a special program CURE’s Kids Conquer Cancer One Day at a Time!
Please help us in our goal of raising $30,000 in the month of September while honoring special CURE kids each day of the month who have been affected by childhood cancer.
For more information, please click here.
About CURE Childhood Cancer:
Founded in 1975, CURE Childhood Cancer is dedicated to conquering childhood cancer through research, education and support of patients and their families. Since its establishment as a grass-roots organization, CURE has focused its efforts on improving the care, quality of life, and survival rate of children with cancer.
The founders, parents and a dedicated pediatric oncologist, joined forces to support laboratory research that would translate into immediate care for children with cancer.
Since that time, CURE has raised millions of dollars to fund cutting edge research at the Aflac Cancer Center Blood Disorders Service at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine.
Through innovative programming, CURE also provides support for stricken families, providing them comfort and support during their time of devastating need.
Donate to Joshua’s Fund
Visit us online at www.curechildhoodcancer.org for more information.
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