Dear Editor,
I hope this email finds you doing well. I am reaching out to call your attention to the fact that only one member of our state’s congressional delegation has signed on to support the STAR Act for Childhood Cancer Research and Treatment (HR 820 / S. 292).
My family has been directly affected by childhood cancer as our two-year-old daughter Madelynn is a survivor of bilateral Wilms tumor (cancer in both kidneys). When she was barely 4 months old we heard the words every parent dreads: “Your child has cancer.”
Childhood cancer only receives four percent of all federal cancer treatment and research funding. I have seen first hand the toll this terrible disease takes on families and on children who have done nothing in their life to raise their risk factors. Our family is fortunate in that our daughter has been successfully treated (albeit including five surgeries – including one that took nearly 50 percent of one kidney and 40 percent of the other – and eight months of chemo) and is in remission. Although the affects of her illness will follow her through her life.
During our journey, I have met many less fortunate families who have endured less treatable forms of childhood cancer with less positive outcomes than ours. I am fighting and advocating for the families and children currently facing and fighting this dreaded disease and those who will in the future.
Please help us by publishing this on your site in order to raise awareness and hopefully spur folks to contact our elected officials repeatedly and insist they support childhood cancer research and treatment!
Thus far the only elected official from SC who has co-sponsored either version is Joe Wilson.
How you can help: Check here to see if your Representative is a co-sponsor and check here to see if your Senators are co-sponsors of the Childhood Cancer STAR Act (H.R. 820/S. 292).
If you see their names on the list (or know that they already signed on as a co-sponsor of the STAR Act), make sure you send them a huge THANK YOU for supporting childhood cancer. Click on the following to access contact information for Senate offices and contact information for Representatives.
Thank you,
Josh Johnson
Elgin, S.C.
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SIC SEZ …
Hey Josh: Thanks for passing your letter along. I’ll have to do some digging on this bill. In the meantime, let me just say I’m gratified to know your little girl is doing well. Please feel free to write us anytime you have updates to share on this issue – or any other subject.
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