September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Here at Redpoint Physical Therapy, we’re trained medical professionals (at least we like to think we are) and part of any medical training is learning to separate emotion from the treatment process. Part of the secret is that it’s not always possible to do so. We’re human and we get attached to our patients. We celebrate their joys and feel their pain. All of the best training in the world can’t take away that voice inside your head when you lay your head on the pillow at night.

Nowhere is that voice louder than when the subject of childhood cancer arises. There is no easy way to speak about it and the emotions run deeper and wider than in any other medical situation. We want to recognize that this month is the month to talk about it. September is “National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month”.

This month, the medical community rises to recognize the families that have been effected by this horrible disease, the caretakers who treat the afflicted, and, most importantly the children who have suffered, lived, died, survived, and thrived.

It is important to note that we are making progress. In the 1970s, only 63% of those aged 18 and under survived a cancer diagnosis. Today that number is at 85%. In the US alone, there are over 350,000 adult survivors of childhood cancers and children represent only 1% of all cancer diagnoses. Close to home, in Boston, Dana Farber and the Boston Children’s Hospital are working very hard to wipe out the disease all together. They have a great website with some inspiring survival stories. Check it out at:

As Physical Therapists we don’t stand on the front lines of this battle… but quite frequently we aid in recovery from surgeries and other procedures. We also occasionally meet parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, teachers and coaches who have been touched in a personal sense. It’s an important conversation to have. It’s not easy… but there is none more important.

In the end, though, it’s all about awareness. Together, we can change things.