Cancer Treatment Should Fit Every Child: Right Now It Doesn’t
Every day in the UK, 10 children and young people will receive the devastating news that they have cancer. Of those 10, two will not survive. Of those that survive, many will have long-term side-effects that may significantly impact their lives forever.
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month takes place every September. This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we’re asking for your help to give every child the chance to grow up and fulfill their dreams.
A Different September for Arianna
This September, again Arianna is heading back to school. But she’ll be walking through the gates differently from her classmates – on the balls of her feet, heels raised, because the muscles in her legs were permanently tightened by treatment never designed for her body, to save her life.
Arianna was five when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Within six days, she couldn’t walk. Her cancer was so aggressive that her doctors had no choice but to treat it as hard and fast as possible, whatever the cost to her body, to save her life.
The drugs they used were not designed for Arianna or any child. They were designed for adults and developed decades before she was born. Arianna survived. But the treatment left its mark. She has lost her high-frequency hearing – making it harder to follow conversation in a noisy classroom, to catch every word a friend or sibling says. She will carry this for life.
We are in 2026, and the cancer treatment our children are going through was originally designed for adults. The amount of long-term side effects, is out of this world. It’s absolutely mad.
Abigail, Arianna’s mum
Donate today
Donate today to help fund research into developing more effective and less harmful treatments so that children like Olivia can live the future they deserve.
Support saves lives
From one-off donations and corporate sponsorship, to marathons or tea parties, your contributions support our cases, and can also lead to invaluable personal growth.
Fundraising ideas
Take a look at some suggestions and watch this page as we introduce more fun ideas for raising money to help children with cancer.
How you are helping
Your generous support is helping us to fund important pioneering research that will help to give children with cancer a better chance to fulfil their dreams.
Dr Karin Straathof – University College London
We’ve teamed up with Dr Karin Straathof at University College London Cancer Institute, who’s working on a project which aims to ‘reprogram’ the T-cells in the body so they can recognise and kill cancer cells.
Whilst T-cells are always patrolling the body in search of infected cells, they ignore cancer cells which are shielded. Dr Straathof wants to equip these cells with additional abilities (a bit like a powerup in a video game) to overcome this and get better results.
The project got underway in January 2024 and is expected to last 24 months. Thanks to supporters like you, we’ve been able to contribute a grant amount of £231,742.
Professor Clifford – Newcastle University Centre for Cancer
We’re incredibly proud to be supporting the INSTINCT programme led by Professor Clifford. It’s an innovative collaborative initiative between the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer, the UCL Institute of Child Health and the Institute of Cancer Research.
The aim of the programme, which started in 2014, is to carry out vital research into the causes of high risk paediatric brain tumours, and find the best ways to treat them. Thanks supporters like you, we’ve been able to help move this research onto the next stage.
Previous years in Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Each year, we raise awareness of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the form of events and stories. Here are a few of our previous milestones.
2024: Kids Like Us – a powerful film about children with cancer
Children with Cancer UK is proud to introduce you to a powerful 90-minute film produced by Echo Velvet (the producers of ITV’s critically acclaimed documentary It’s Showtime) and follows the extraordinary lives of eight remarkable young people from across the UK and US who have faced the unimaginable.
Kids Like Us is a landmark documentary feature which will fundamentally change the way `we view childhood cancer and the issues that surround it.
2023: A hug is such a simple thing
A hug is a wordless gesture that says so much. A hug is care. And understanding. Nothing else can blanket you so instantly in warmth, and love, like a hug can. Hugs are for everyone, anywhere, any time: our friends, our family, our pet. A hug can be quick and gentle, or long and wonderfully crushing.
Some hugs are pure joy: an exhilarated embrace of celebration for all our greatest achievements – those exams we thought we’d never get through, seeing that finish line of a marathon, or hearing a doctor say you’re all clear.
But hugs are for sadder days too – the comforting reassurance you need in times of bad, or even frightening news. When you feel like you can’t go on, a hug can be the tiniest moment that gives you the strength to carry on.
All hugs – be they big, small, gentle, strong, happy, sad – come from the heart. And when you’re in one you can feel with all of yours: you’re not alone.
2022: When I grow up…
Meet Eve, lover of all things showbiz and living with a cancer diagnosis. We asked Eve, 13 what she wants to be when she grows up? Eve was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma, a type of brain tumour in 2019, at the age of 10. Eve said; “When I dance, everything kind of falls out of my mind. I just go to a whole different place.” Like and watch this video to find out what Eve’s dream is and with your support, you’ll help raise awareness this Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
You can also watch Josh’s video here: “When I grow up, I want to be a photographer.”
You can also watch the behind the scenes video here.
Childhood Cancer Conference
In previous years we’ve hosted our annual Childhood Cancer Conference throughout September. In 2019, the focus was an update on how genomic medicine is being used to deliver new therapies, reduce toxicity, enable early diagnosis and progress efforts to prevent cancer in children, teenagers and young adults. Read about our 2019 Conference here.
Our 2018 conference brought together leading research scientists from across the world to discuss advances in Precision Medicine, and how it can be used to treat children and young people with cancer. Read about our 2018 Conference here.
Golden moments
In 2017, for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month we celebrated the positive impact of research in childhood and young person’s cancer by asking families to share their ‘Golden Moments’ from their child’s cancer journey. These moments are memories that will never be lost and show that even in difficult circumstances hope is a force for good.
Other stories
We have lots of information to help you learn more about childhood cancer. From specific cancer types, to treatments and causes.
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Too Big Campaign – Press Release
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Teddy’s Leukaemia Story
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