By: Carol Schreiber
Murray County News Staffwriter
Each September, people choose to “Go Gold” in honor of children fighting, in memory of children who have fought and with hope that the children who will be diagnosed with cancer will find a cure. Raising awareness is key to raising funds and finding a cure.
Several youngsters in the area have been among the estimated over 250,000 annually diagnosed new cases of cancer affecting children under 20.
As September begins, it seems an appropriate time to check in with some of the youngsters currently fighting cancer.
Since February, baby Jeff Spartz has been battling ALL Leukemia. Now nine months old, Jeff’s parents are Chad and Meg Spartz of Brewster.
McKhia Hasty was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) in late November 2017. The daughter of Samantha Casper, McKhia is now ten years old.
Now six years old, Aiden Remme of rural Brewster has been battling a brain tumor which was diagnosed when he was nearly four. He is the son of Chris and Tracy Remme, and grandson of Tom and Darcy Busch, Brewster, and Jerry and Deb Remme, Jackson.
According to the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer website, childhood cancer research continues to be vastly and consistently underfunded.
One in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 20 years old, and childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 19 in the United States.
Two-thirds of childhood cancer patients will have long-lasting chronic conditions from treatment.
Childhood cancer is not just one disease. It is made up of 12 major types and over 100 subtypes.
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