Growing up in what now seems like the Stone-Age- I left my footprints in the mud, on the baseball field and occasionally, in neighbor’s garden. I talked to friends on a land line attached to wall by a curly cord and most of the games we played were played on boards. Fast forward to 2015 and this all feels like a distant memory. Today, we all leave our footprints on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Our cellphones are with us at every moment and we all have the latest game apps at our finger tips.
I am certainly not complaining, just feeling nostalgic.
If I have learned anything over the last few years, it is that all this technology has a great deal of influence and power to change lives, contribute to causes, and if we are lucky, perhaps it can lead to finding a cure for pediatric cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society,
Childhood cancers make up less than 1% of all cancers diagnosed each year. About 10,380 children in the United States under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer in 2015. Childhood cancer rates have been rising slightly for the past few decades.
Because of major treatment advances in recent decades, more than 80% of children with cancer now survive 5 years or more. Overall, this is a huge increase since the mid-1970s, when the 5-year survival rate was about 58%. Still, survival rates vary depending on the type of cancer and other factors.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children (after accidents). About 1,250 children younger than 15 years old are expected to die from cancer in 2015.
According to the American Childhood Cancer Organization, “Childhood cancer kills more children than any other disease in the United States today, yet treatments designed for a child’s body remain frustratingly out-of-reach.”
As a mother, I have to admit that nothing is scarier that waiting in a doctor’s office to find out what is making your child sick. I was lucky to never hear the word, cancer, but one of my former students was not so lucky. In a very short time, this young mother of a beautiful one-year-old girl was flooded with medical terminology she did not understand. Clueless to what anything meant, she was then told she needed to make immediate, vital decisions that would drastically impact her child’s future. Instead of planning a fist birthday party, this mom was suddenly researching treatment protocols, medications, and clinical trials—to fight this terrible diagnosis. In a matter of hours, a fairy tale life, with two vibrant, healthy little girls full of sunshine turned into a mother's worst nightmare.
This moment began what would become an endless road into uncertainty. The kind of uncertainty that that forces a parent to question every choice made in regards to their child.
As part of our #BetterCommunities initiative this summer, ParadoxLabs proudly supports Alex’s Lemonade Stand because no parent should ever be put on that road and no child should face a future that is anything less than magical.
Alexandra Scott warmed the hearts of all who met her. She may have only spent eight short years among us, but her spirit lives on forever in those battling to end pediatric cancer.
The story of four-year old Alex’s mission was simple- to find cures for other children fighting cancer, while she was facing her own battle. Though Alex dreamed of seeing a cure within her lifetime for the childhood cancer she was fighting (neuroblastoma), she was equally concerned, if not more so, with making sure others would have the chance of cures.
In 2000, Alex set up a lemonade stand in her front yard to fund research for pediatric cancer, and to help other kids like the doctors who helped her. Alex's lemonade stand raised $2,000 in that year. Her inspiring story caught the eye of the media and donations poured in. By the time Alex passed away in 2004, she had raised over $1 million.
Ten years later, Alex’s legacy lives on. With a staff of 30, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised more than $102 million to fight the pediatric cancer. There are more than 7,000 lemonade stands in over 10 countries.
According to Alex’s mother, "She'd be very, very grateful for all who've contributed, and proud of the difference it has made. Then Alex would say: 'We can do more.'”
We agree that we can do more and we urge you to help us by setting up your own Lemonade Stand and sending us pictures or simply by making a donation on the web site: Alex’s Lemonade Stand.