This week is International Neuroblastoma Week. Two of DD's friends have been fighting this for the past three years. It is the second most common solid childhood cancer (after brain cancer) but despite 100 kids developing it every year, most people have never even heard of it.
Couple that with the fact that most kids are not diagnosed until it has spread widely and at that stage the prognosis is much worse and that due to the lack of treatment options for relapsed disease in the UK, many parents are forced to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds seeking treatment abroad if they want to try to save their child if they relapse.
I have watched these two beautiful girls fight like hell for their lives for years now, one is doing well and in remission but the other is still fighting for her life having private treatment overseas and cannot remember a life before cancer. I hate this monster of an illness and what it is doing to children I know and love.
Please, this Neuroblastoma Awareness Week, visit this site and make yourself aware of the signs and symptoms so that if a child you know becomes one of the 100 children who will be diagnosed with Neuroblastoma this year, they have a chance of being diagnosed fast enough to have a good prognosis.
www.familiesagainstneuroblastoma.org/
Also, if you have another five minutes, please visit my DD's friend's page, send £1 (or more if you can) and you can leave her a message of support here.
www.justgiving.com/olivia-downie-appeal