Argumentative Essay On Childhood Cancer

Childhood cancer has greatly affected our society and the lives of the people impacted negatively. If affects children from ages four to fourteen, when their lives has just started. The treatments for children remain frustratingly far away. In the Fault in Our Stars, it shows how the families and the community are affected by childhood cancer. Childhood cancer remains a silent disease. Although childhood cancer is rare, it’s still the leading cause of death by disease in children, yet the funding is severely underfunded. More adults get cancer than kids. That’s one reason more funding and research goes to adult cancer. On estimate adults lose about 15 years of life to cancer, but kids lose 71. Only 4% of U.S federal funding is solely dedicated to childhood cancer research. The average age of death for a child with cancer is only 8 years old. These children have a whole life ahead of them, but there is not enough funding to save them. 3 out of 4 survivors have long-term chronic illnesses. “It can be a traumatic time for all loved ones- parents, sibling, relatives, friends, and classmates.” (Silverstein 82). The children aren’t the only ones affected from underfunded research.

Late-effects are problems that surface later on in life from previous cancer. Such as, infertility, heart failure, mental and physical issues, and even secondary cancers. Everyday forty-three children are diagnosed with cancer, and 1 out of 8 children survive that cancer. There is a significant number of children with cancer and even if they survive it miraculously, most will suffer from late-effects. All of this circulates back to the extremely low funding for childhood cancer. If childhood cancer research had the funding we could eliminate cancer overall. One child with cancer is far too