St. Baldrick’s events<\/a>
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\u00a0Pediatric cancers receive about 4% of federal cancer research funding
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Doctors say childhood cancer remains the leading disease-related cause of death among children<\/p>\nSteve Kibler\u2019s life changed forever when his baby boy was diagnosed with leukemia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe developed some signs and symptoms. We didn\u2019t know exactly what was going on. We saw some specialists. They said it\u2019s definitely not cancer, and two weeks later, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, and he passed away at the age of five months. So he lived 160 days,\u201d Kibler said.<\/p>\n
The loss left Kibler and his wife struggling to cope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot of feeling. It was a lot of confusion and numbness at first and just a sense of loss. My wife and I just laid in the bed for weeks, if not months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Kibler said they began looking for ways to heal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just started doing different outreach programs for therapy for us to begin with. And St. Baldrick\u2019s was one of those events that started off as therapy for us,\u201d Kibler said.<\/p>\n
That therapy turned into advocacy.<\/p>\n
Kibler now helps organize events connected to the St. Baldrick\u2019s Foundation, which raises money for pediatric cancer research. Over the years, the local effort has raised nearly half a million dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (St. Baldrick\u2019s) actually just let us know that in total, we\u2019ve raised $497,000 for the cause. So to think that I\u2019m just a dad. I\u2019m just a dad that was looking for something to do, to occupy my time and to try to start removing the grief,\u201d Kibler said.<\/p>\n
Doctors say funding for pediatric cancer research is critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildhood cancer is rare and biologically complex compared with adult cancers, and it is still the leading disease-related cause of death in children,\u201d said Dr. Amina Rafique, section chief of pediatric hematology oncology at the Haley Center of Cancer and Blood Disorders at Arnold Palmer Hospital.<\/p>\n
Despite that, pediatric cancers receive only a small share of research funding. According to Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Congressional Cancer Caucus, pediatric cancers receive only about four percent of federal cancer research funding – even though nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population is under 18.<\/p>\n
Doctors say the lack of funding can slow progress in developing new treatments.<\/p>\n
\u201cLack of funding delays progress. Several children cannot access timely therapies, particularly at the time where they needed more urgently,\u201d Rafique said.<\/p>\n
For Kibler, raising money is about helping other families facing the same devastating diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they donate money, it\u2019s not just going to some big machine, it\u2019s actually going to a family, and it\u2019s going to children, someone that\u2019s loved and cherished,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0An Orange County firefighter is turning personal tragedy into purpose, helping raise money for childhood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1011,274,3949,1190,115,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":["post-194571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bryanna-howard","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}