Kids 'n' Cancer...
This charity is designed to help children access the latest evolution of radiotherapy treatment – Proton Therapy – which is extremely effective in treating mass tumour cancers, whilst at the same time, causing significantly less collateral damage to sensitive and/or not yet fully developed healthy tissue and organs than traditional Radio Therapy, because of the pinpoint accuracy, control and focus the Proton Therapy process allows.
It is a sad fact of life that some children diagnosed with cancer do not qualify for funding from the NHS in certain situations.
Whilst we are assured directly by the NHS that decisions made to fund Proton Therapy treatment or not are based entirely on Medical/Treatment grounds and are nothing to do with finances, ALL the children that did not receive NHS funding and were assisted by Kids ‘n’ Cancer are alive and making excellent progress.
Kids’n’Cancer and our Patrons are determined to assist families caught up in this situation of not meeting the criteria and will always try to assist where possible.
We believe that every child with cancer deserves an opportunity to beat their illness. Statistics show that one in three people will suffer with cancer and whilst it is always sad, it is doubly distressing when a child is diagnosed with cancer.
The children should be enjoying their life and looking forward to growing up doing the type of things that we all did as children such as playing in the park, playing football, playing with other children and generally enjoying their lives. It is always distressing to see children lying in hospital beds and being treated for cancer.
It is also very difficult for families when their child is undergoing cancer treatment – and this charity is designed to assist these families to reach their goals and in the hope that their child will beat their cancer and return to a normal way of life, doing the things that children do.
Kids ‘n’ Cancer NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL GIVE MEDICAL ADVICE.
What we do is connect families with Medical Experts who are world leaders in the field of Paediatric Oncology and Proton Therapy, who will assess, working with the child’s UK specialist, whether Proton Therapy treatment would be effective on a case by case basis.
What Kids ‘n’ Cancer DOES do however, is when Proton Therapy is deemed the appropriate treatment for a child’s particular cancer, we offer full support, help and advice to families with regard to raising money for treatment, the journey and logistics of potentially prolonged stays in the USA or away from their own home and income, and help to support and finance them where necessary, even for those cases that are funded for treatment by the NHS – families still need further help and financial support.
Why did I decide to set up KIDS ‘n’ CANCER UK?
Well, the inspiration came to me early in 2010 when I chaired an appeal to raise funds for a 13 year old boy with prostate cancer to get him to the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute (UFPTI) in Jacksonville Florida for proton therapy.
His mother had appealed for help to raise the funds to enable this to happen.
Unfortunately he became too ill to travel and on the advice of his Oncologist, he received radio therapy in this country instead. Having been involved in raising funds in the past (mainly brain tumour cases), it was clear that no existing charity covered this unique situation.
It is no easy task to raise between one hundred and two hundred thousand pounds for these families who are trying to improve the chances that their beloved child has an opportunity to try and beat their cancer and prolong their lives.
Seeing the heartbreak and stress that families go through has made me determined to do all in my power to ensure this situation does not happen again.
Hence, KIDS ’n’ CANCER UK was born.
I then visited the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute to research the treatment and have to tell you, I was amazed at the success rate of this treatment.
I was fortunate to meet several patients with different types of cancer who were given very little chance to beat their illness without suffering substantial collateral damage, as is the case with conventional treatments such as traditional IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radio Therapy, X-Rays and Photons).
The care that they receive is of the highest order, everyone is so positive, it’s very special!
Seeing and talking to these patients and the specialists who are treating them was amazing and truly inspirational. If ever I am unfortunate enough to get prostate cancer, I’M OFF TO THE USA!!!
Hopefully you will find this website informative and helpful and that it inspires you to fight for your loved one and gives more hope for your child’s future.
