September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I am writing to you with a great deal of gratitude for our Tennessee congressional leaders. I am a 21-year-old student at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., and a six-year childhood cancer survivor. I am extremely fortunate to be alive and cancer-free.
Every school day, 46 children in the United States are diagnosed with cancer, which is the equivalent of two classrooms full of children. One in five children diagnosed does not survive, and the four who do survive often endure life-long physical, educational and emotional effects as a result of their cancer treatment.
Our Tennessee congressional leaders played an influential role in the recent passing of the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act, which will dedicate governmental funds for childhood cancer research. I want to extend my deepest appreciation to congressional members Blackburn, Cohen, D. Davis, Duncan, Gordon and Wamp for becoming co-sponsors and avid supporters of the act, as well as Congressmen Cooper, L. Davis and Tanner, and Sens. Alexander and Corker for joining the others and voting for the act.
I feel blessed to live in Middle Tennessee and to have been treated and cured of my cancer at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. With these new funds, research efforts to help find cures will continue, and one day all children can have their lives back, just like me.
Caroline Hale
Franklin, Tenn.
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