The month of September marks Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a month in which the CCLG’s (Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group) main aim is to make more people aware of how they can help with the fight against this illness.
Current statistics show that around 5 children a week in the UK are diagnosed with a form of cancer, that is just shy of 2,000 children a year. Whilst the cure rate is higher in children than in adults (around 82% of children survive cancer for 5 years or more), there are still on average 230 children a year that sadly die from rarer forms of cancer that still urgently require further research. For this reason, cancer still remains the number one cause of child deaths in the UK.
Over the last 45 years the CCLG have made a huge impact in raising awareness and raising money to fund vital research into curing different types of cancers. However, unfortunately this is still an ongoing issue and one that will not disappear until every child suffering with cancer can be treated and hopefully cured. This research does not stop with just finding suitable treatments for the sufferers, but also looking at how the long-lasting effects of this treatment may impact the child’s life and how to reduce these effects, so the child can live a normal life after their treatment.
This September, Naomi Bamforth, a member of our Conveyancing department, is raising money for Candlelighters by completing 150 miles throughout the month.
Naomi commented: "This is a charity very close to my heart, as they have helped us out immensely since my daughter (pictured below) was diagnosed with Leukaemia back in September 2021. They support children who have been diagnosed with cancer and their families in Yorkshire.
“The reason the challenge is being help in September is because it is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, sometimes known as go gold for childhood cancer month.
“One mile represents one child diagnosed with Cancer, on average 150 children a year in Yorkshire are diagnosed with Cancer.”
Find out more about Naomi’s story and her fundraising goals here.
Teams across our offices will then be hosting coffee mornings and cake sales in aid of Candlelighters, the CCLG and Macmillan Cancer support towards the end of September. We will also be carrying our cancer awareness efforts across into October where some of our staff will be joining other members of the public in Leeds to take part in the Shine Night 10K Walk for Cancer Research UK on 21st October.
