It’s true – raising money for Janubeard really saves lives:
Currently 3 children in Australia die every week from cancer.
Key facts
- More than 950 children and adolescents will be diagnosed with childhood cancer in Australia every year.
- Sadly, nearly three children and adolescents will die from their cancer every week here in Australia.
- Childhood cancer is the largest cause of childhood deaths from disease and in terms of life years lost is second only to breast cancer – for every child who dies at two years we have lost the potential of 78 years, based on today’s average life expectancy of 80 years.
- For the 26,000 survivors of childhood cancer in Australia today up to 70% will suffer side-effects.
- 30% will have a permanent life-long condition such as infertility, heart condition, cognitive disorder or a secondary cancer as a result of their gruelling invasive childhood cancer treatment.
You only have to look at the stats to see how far we’ve come. Sixty years ago childhood cancer was considered a death sentence. Today, as a result of enormous advances in research, almost eight in 10 children will survive.
But some cancers still have much lower survival rates. Aggressive neuroblastoma has a survival rate of less than 50%, which drops to less than 15% if the child relapses – and the average age of diagnosis is just two years old. There is also a type of brain tumour for which there is no treatment and every child currently dies. In this instance, there is nothing more the clinician can do than tell the parents to go home and enjoy the remaining time they have with their child.
We believe all children, no matter what their diagnosis, should have the best possible chance of surviving cancer, and thriving.