Two (Actually Three) Big Favors

I’ve got three big favors to ask of you.  I normally don’t like to mix politics with this blog, but in this case I need to.

I previously wrote about a bill in Congress called the “Creating Hope Act”.  This bill is designed to provide incentives for researchers and pharmaceuticals to develop more effective treatments for pediatric cancers.  I also previously wrote about how woefully underfunded children’s cancers are compared to other cancers.  The National Cancer Institute provides less than 3% of their budget to children while the American Cancer Society provides less than 1 %.  Treatment for children need to trickle down after years of testing on adults, and aren’t even that effective since children’s cancers are very different from adult cancers.  It’s a shame that our children suffer because they don’t have a large voice in Washington DC.

So the first favor I ask is to follow this link below and fill out your information.  The website will prepopulate some forms and address them directly to your congressmen and senators.  It shouldn’t take more than two minutes and you don’t have to lick any yucky stamps:

Creating Hope Act Letter

The White House has setup an online petition web site where people can submit topics that they feel are important.  If the petition gets 5,000 signatures, White House staff review the petition and send it to policy experts.  Someone has created an online petition for the government to allocate more funds to better treat childhood cancers.

So my second favor is for you to sign the petition below.  (You can look for me, I am signature #2385!)

Keep Kids Alive Petition

And my third and final favor I ask is for you to share these links with all your friends whether it be via Facebook or Twitter or E-mail or another blog.  I don’t have a great deal of confidence that either will do any good, but it does sort of help ease this smothering feeling of helplessness that overcomes us.

Thank you.