Curesearch Walk

Briley has been doing very well and feeling great!! Her hair has come back in and is growing very fast! She loves putting clips in her hair. One thing about it, her hair loss broke Bryson from pulling her hair!

I wanted to drop a little note and let you know that we and a couple of other cancer kid's parents are planning a Curesearch Walk in Wichita hopefully in September. Curesearch funds the Children's Oncology Group (COG). The COG is the leading pediatric cancer research in the U.S. As you may know, Briley is currently under a COG research trail. Thanks to them, Briley's particular leukemia survival rates have increased from almost certain death in the 1950's to 90-95% today!

Funding for kid's cancer research is very minimal compared to adult. Most will argue that kid's cancer is rare, hence the reason it receives less funding. While that may be true, years of life lost due to pedi cancer almost equals that of breast cancer. Plus, it's just not fair for these innocent kids to get this awful disease. This adventure has changed me. Not only because of Briley's leukemia, but also the kid's that we have met while at Cooks. A few of them are no longer with us. I'll never forget talking to a teenager that had terminal cancer. They gave him 3 months. This is what drives me to do something more.

A couple of folks have told me that they would love to donate to Curesearch, but have already donated to another cancer charity. While that's great, there is a big difference when donating to one or the other.

For example: NCI gives 3% to pedi cancer. ACS allocates .4% towards pedi cancer. What little federal funding there is for pedi cancer was actually cut this year. I find it appalling that the ACS spends more money on a program to ban smoking in bars in S. Africa than they do on pedi cancer research.

I've really opened my eyes and look further into programs as to where the money that I donate actually goes. A good place to do this is at www.charitynavigator.com. I look up just about every charity that ask for money from us. You may be surprised to where your money is actually going. If I donate my money for "the cure", then I want it to go to research and not the majority of it paying for salaries and overhead.

With that being said, I'm not condoning ACS, NCI, or anyone else. I think they are great and have their place. A lot of good hearted people work hard for "the cure". Thanks to them, advancements have been made that would not have been possible without them. I just wanted to point out the difference between the adult & pedi cancer worlds. It's two totally different worlds.

94% of your donation through Curesearch will go directly to research! That is awesome! I will keep the progress of the walk updated. I just wanted y'all to keep it in the back of your mind and would love to have you join our team. I would love to see the Team Briley t-shirt wearing folks in force at the walk. Thanks!