Today we acknowledge Brain Cancer Awareness Day here in Canada. Brain cancer is one of the most common cancers in young children and adolescents, taking the lead ahead of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The mind of a child is hungry, fresh, and excited for the great wide world, but across Canada, children and their families face this incredibly difficult journey.
The brain is already such a complex organ that we are far from fully understanding: it carries all who these children are, their dreams, their growing personalities, their uniqueness. So in honor of children fighting brain cancer and those who have passed, we share some myths and facts about brain cancer.
Myth: Brain cancer shows the same in each person
In the way each fingerprint is different, brain cancer expresses itself differently in each child that will be diagnosed with it. Some children may experience symptoms over a long period of time. Others may feel normal one day, and the next to be hit with an intense plethora of symptoms that follow with a diagnosis.
Myth: Treatment for brain cancer is openly available to the public and easily utilized
There are over 120 different types of brain tumors. Treatment depends on this, as well as where it is located in the brain, the age of the person, and their unique medical history too. While Canada’s health care system is not perfect, it is one of the best healthcare systems in the world. A part of this reality for families with children who have brain cancer is the financial weight carried with treatment, posing as another heart-wrenching dilemma.
Myth: When treatment is successfully completed, life goes back to being the same
The hope of each child and their loved ones is for that final day where it’s all over, and they can return to enjoying a beautiful life together in good health and happiness. But this is a profound, life-changing experience for children that survive brain cancer. Depending on how old they are and how they each retain memory, this experience can be forgotten with time if they are closer to infancy than being a toddler. Or, they are old enough to remember each moment of fear, each appointment- all of the emotions that only someone diagnosed with cancer can fully comprehend.
Every day, we keep hope in our hearts and continue forward in raising money for Childhood Cancer Research, to support these little warriors and their families and bring a little gold to their day. Here’s how you can help us help Believe in the Gold Families https://www.believeinthegold.ca/get-involved