I don’t care about childhood cancer. At least that’s the notion that I get from todays society.

According to the official cancer website, in 2007 about 10,400 children under the age of 15 were diagnosed with cancer. That makes cancer the leading cause of death for children between the ages of one and 14. These aren’t just statistics on a piece of paper. These are young children dying because of lack of funding. Society needs to start caring about childhood cancer.

Thirty-five million dollars each year is spent on childhood cancer research, according to the Amanda Riley Foundation Website.To put this in perspective the United States spends $14 billion on space research.

The first problem with the lack of funding for childhood cancer stems from the lack of awareness of it. If I asked five random people in the hallway what month is Breast Cancer awareness month they would all tell me October. If I asked the same five people what month Childhood Cancer Awareness is, I would guess maybe one of them could tell me that it is September.

In order to provide better funding, people need to be aware of the true issue. Childhood cancer is a very real problem. There are many different types of cancers: Leukemia, lymphoma, brain cancer and bone cancer are some of the most common cancers in children. None of which get the necessary funding for caring for a child.

According to the Amanda Riley Foundation website, one in 330 Americans are diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20. In 2012, approximately $603 million was spent in research for Breast Cancer. All cancers are deadly and deserve attention. Childhood cancer is left unnoticed by those that aren’t directly affected by it. Why can’t funding for all cancers be equal?

We go pink in October, let’s go gold in September. Raise awareness for childhood cancer.