We will be keeping our project the same because we feel that we have made a lot of progress and the project has a good purpose. This past few weeks we have made a lot of bracelets and have also gotten the Kennedy student government involved and they have supplied and made bracelets for us. We also have been contacting local business asking if they would like to donate to cancer research. We also feel that our project has a good purpose because we are helping people who really need it and we hope that giving them bracelets and messages will brighten their day. We also want to donate money to research even if its not a huge amount, anything helps. For the video we are going to be in front of the camera so we might need to figure out how we will film that. We will probably do the video outside and inside Kennedy High School.

I pager

 

Calysta Heunisch

Period 1

Childhood Cancer

 

Most people can agree that cancer is a huge problem in the United States and that cancer research is very important and necessary. Most people want to find a cure to get rid of cancer. Researchers also agree that finding cures for all types of cancer is necessary. Researchers have “estimated 15,780 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. Also there are an estimated 10,380 new types of cancer that will be diagnosed among children ages 0-14 years old every year.” I found this information in the National Cancer Institute website.

Researchers also say that children’s cancer is not always treated like adult cancer, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplant. Even though the survival rate is close to 80% for children, lots of them who survive face at least one chronic health condition. It is also hard for some children to recover from cancer, if they receive a more intense treatment then it can have different effects on their growing bodies and give them negative long term affects.

Researchers don’t know all of the reasons for how children’s cancer is caused. About 5% is genetic and they also know that cancer can be caused by mutations in genes that lead to uncontrolled cell growth and cancer, but they don’t know how to prevent it yet.

I agree with these assumptions and the researcher’s opinion as well.  I that cancer research is very important and necessary to help save people’s life. The American Childhood Cancer Organization says, that “Federal funding for childhood cancer research is predominantly allocated through the National Cancer Institute.” This means that most money is not donated directly to certain hospitals and that is why we want to donate our money directly to the University of Iowa of Hospital so we can help cancer patients in our community. Since children cancer is sometimes harder to treat since the patients are so young, we decided that we would raise money for them. I think that it is really sad that a lot of kids have chronic problems even after the have recovered from cancer and that we need to find a way to make it easier and safer for children to recover so they can get back into the life they had before the disease.

 Also since it is a very hard situation for kids to handle while they are young and missing out on part of their childhood, we are making bracelets to make their days brighter. I think that sometimes the smallest acts of kindness can help someone have a better day, which is why we want to do this project.