As you rush around in the morning trying to get the kids ready for school, I ask you to keep in mind one Carmel Valley family, the Mikulaks.
Their 7-year old son, Max started second grade last week at Solana Highlands school.
He seemed to be doing well despite a relapse, but on Sunday night he died.
The type of cancer that Max had has a 50% survival rate, despite recent advances.
The type of cancer that Max had is essentially 100% curable in its early stages, but in the early stages there are no symptoms.
If all newborns were screened so that neuroblastoma could be caught early enough, the death rate would be nearly zero.
Max isn't the only child in our area with cancer.
- Noah Severns is a fourth grader at Del Mar Hills school with relapsed osteosarcoma.
- Carson Cloyd is a second grader at Ashley Falls school with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
- Steven Bell is a former Torrey Hills student, now at Carmel Valley Middle school, with brain cancer.
Today, September 1st, marks the first day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
I encourage you to consider a donation to an organization that funds research into the causes and cures for childhood cancer.
Chili's Restaurants made a $50 million pledge to St. Jude Children's Research Hospitals. On September 29 of this month, if you dine at Chili's, they will donate 100% of their profits to St. Jude.
MagicWater Project, the organization that Max Mikulak's family co-founded, is a group of parents whose children have cancer who are bypassing the bureaucracy and trying to directly fund cancer research they believe has a chance to cure their children now.
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation funds research into treatments for pediatric brain tumors, which are the number one cause of cancer death in children.
There are other organizations out there, but many of them fund adult as well as pediatric research, and most new drugs are available to adults sometimes years before the research is done for children. Children don't pay taxes and when it comes to doling out money, they stand at the end of the line.
And please remember the Mikulaks in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate the web of grief that awaits them in the coming days, weeks, months and years.
Good night sweet Max, and may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest...
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