GOLD RIBBON DAYS – SEPTEMBER 2013

Welcome back to our blog. I hope you’ll check back from time to time and follow what
The Sarah Grace Foundation is doing to support children with cancer and their
families.

September is childhood cancer awareness month, what we call “Gold Ribbon Days”.
The gold ribbon is the national symbol of childhood cancer awareness and most people
don’t know that — why? Every day there is something in the paper about pancreatic
cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer etc., why not childhood cancer? It’s like the
dirty secret locked in a closet! Well, I’m here to say that it’s time to open the closet
and let it out – CHILDHOOD CANCER EXISTS – it affects and kills too many
innocent children. Don’t get me wrong, any cancer is horrible and nobody should
have to suffer through it but why don’t we hear more about the children? Our
buildings are lit up in pink (breast cancer), blue (colon cancer), purple (pancreatic)
etc., why don’t we ever light up a building in gold for the children?

I used to like September. I would always take a day off the first day of school to
see Sarah and James off to school. It was always exciting, and sad at the same time
because it meant another summer had ended. I miss those days! I see parents
scrambling to get their children ready, short tempered and frustrated in Staples
buying their school supplies                                                                                         and it makes me want to shake them and remind
them they should be happy their children are alive, healthy and able to go back
to school. I ask myself; “why don’t they see that? why don’t they realize how
lucky they are?” The start of the school year is now just a reminder that those
days are gone and Sarah is gone and how many first days of school we missed.
Sarah’s final ‘school days’ were spent in a hospital room; now if we want to
visit her we go to the cemetery, as we do every Saturday.

So hug your children, enjoy the excitement, but remember Gold Ribbon Days this
month and all of the children that are spending their ‘back to school’ days in heaven.
Let’s push the gold and make people aware that these children deserve the same
awareness and respect as every other form of cancer!