St. Baldrick’s Foundation Invites Volunteers to Help Give Kids a Lifetime this Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

LOS ANGELES (August 26, 2021) – For Childhood Cancer Awareness Month this September, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest non-government funder of childhood cancer research grants, is asking you to help make a difference for kids with cancer by joining its community of supporters to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer research.

Nearly 25,000 of the world’s kids will be diagnosed with cancer in September alone.

Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has awarded more than $310 million in childhood cancer research grants — lifesaving research that has already helped change the 5-year survival rate for childhood cancers from 80% to almost 85% overall. However, for some cancer types, there is still no cure, so the work must continue.

This remarkable progress was not achieved by one institution, donor, volunteer, or any one person. It was a brigade of people from all walks of life coming together to fund lifesaving research to give kids with cancer a lifetime – to help give kids the opportunity to grow up, go to school, get married, start their own family, create or discover new things like a cure for cancer.

The rise in survivorship overall is something to celebrate. It shows that research can save lives. But this statistic doesn’t apply to an individual child or cancer type – it lumps all childhood cancers together. For some types of childhood cancer, the survival rates have drastically improved over time, but for others, the treatments and outcomes have not changed much in decades. There is still no effective treatment or cure for many types of childhood cancer, which emphasizes the need for more research.

A perfect example is the progress made for medulloblastoma patients. In July 2021, researchers announced that due to a new treatment combination, the 5-year survival rate for high-risk group 3 medulloblastoma patients has increased from 54% to 73%.

That’s a 19% increase – almost unheard of from one clinical trial!

Now, imagine what more research can do for kids diagnosed with brain tumors and other cancers. With your support, St. Baldrick’s funding of the most promising research to find cures and give survivors longer and healthier lives will spur continued progress in childhood cancer research. Because when you support St. Baldrick’s, you’re not just funding one researcher or lab, but the best childhood cancer research, wherever it takes place.

“No family with a child fighting cancer cares where their cure comes from. They just want there to be one,” says Kathleen Ruddy, Chief Executive Officer of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. “By soliciting proposals from every research institution and only funding the best, the competition for St. Baldrick’s funding is steep and our donors are assured their gifts are making the maximum impact to improve the 5-year survival rate and give kids a lifetime.”

Join St. Baldrick’s this September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and support promising research through any of the activities below:

Advocate for childhood cancer:

• Join the Speak Up for Kids’ Cancer advocacy action network to encourage lawmakers to increase funding for childhood cancer research.

Show your support on social media:

• Use a St. Baldrick’s Facebook Frame on your profile.
  Steal a graphic here to share with your announcement that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
  Tell your story: Share what motivates you, using #GiveKidsALifetime.

Have some fun with your fundraising:

• Join the Childhood Cancer Awareness Month Virtual Head-Shaving Party, Sept. 25.
• Why go it alone? Get your company involved!
• Start your own Facebook Fundraiser.
• Play the Shave the Day video game! Your points turn into donations from Schick for lifesaving research.

And here’s something entirely new!

• Do you stream? Ready to start? Sign up for the first St. Baldrick’s Creators Conquer Kids’ Cancer charity stream on Tiltify, Sept. 12-26.

Whatever you choose, your participation honors kids we’ve lost, those who survived, and all who are still fighting.

The research you fund doesn’t just increase the 5-year survival rate for childhood cancers. Five years is not enough! We aim to give kids a whole lifetime, a chance to go after their dreams.

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Every 2 minutes a child somewhere in the world is diagnosed with cancer. In the U.S., 1 in 5 will not survive. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest non-government funder of childhood cancer research grants, is on a mission to give kids a lifetime by supporting the most promising research to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. When you give to St. Baldrick’s, you don’t just give to one hospital – you support virtually every institution with the expertise to treat kids with cancer across the U.S. St. Baldrick’s ensures that children fighting cancer now — and those diagnosed in the future — will have access to the most cutting-edge treatment, by supporting every stage of research, from new ideas in the lab to the development of new therapies, to life-saving clinical trials. Join us at StBaldricks.org and help #GiveKidsaLifetime.

###