Here’s your opportunity to kick off the holiday season by doing something nice. Even the most time-strapped parents of toddlers can take the time to send a Christmas card to a little boy for what may be his last Christmas.

Five-year-old Noah Biorkman has been battling neuroblastoma cancer for two-and-a-half years. He was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma in February 2007. It went into remission in August of that year, but returned in September 2008 with legions on Noah’s right arm and leg. After six different clinical trials, the cancer continues to spread.

His family, including his mother Diana Harrison Biorkman, will celebrate Christmas with him early this year – what is likely to be Noah’s last one. Noah loves Christmas cards, so his mom is asking everyone to send him a card. His address is:

Noah Biorkman
1411 Fountain View Circle
South Lyon, Michigan 48178

Snopes Verified

According to Snopes.com, DJ Ed Carter WKSR in Pulaski, Tennessee, who is an acquaintance of Mrs. Biorkman, has verified the story on the air. You can also read updates on Noah at his section on CarePages. Be warned that his mother’s blog is a definite tearjerker. I’m actually sitting here with tears in my eyes, holding my one-year-old daughter, as I read.

On Thursday, Noah received 416 cards and they continue coming in. The celebration is planned for this weekend. But it’s not too late to send a card with well wishes for this beautiful and brave little boy.

Private thoughts, prayers and well wishes for a “Christmas miracle” won’t hurt either, I’m sure. While Noah sleeps a lot, the medication that keeps the pain at bay does permit him to walk and play, as well. He is filled with wonder at the well wishes he’s receiving and is making the most of his time with his family in the ways only a child can.

About Neuroplastoma

Mrs. Biorkman describes her son’s cancer on the blog: “Neuroblastoma cancer really sucks and is a beast.” Noah’s doctors continue working hard to find a cure for children who relapse, and Mrs. Biorkman hopes the clinical trial’s Noah has taken will help them in their efforts.

Neuroblastoma is a cancerous tumor beginning in the nerve tissues – often in the adrenal glands in the abdomen — of infants and toddlers. About 650 cases of neuroblastoma are detected in the U.S. each year and most are diagnosed in children under 5 years old.

As with most cancers, the prognosis for children with neuroblastoma varies depending on how early it is detected, and how quickly the cancer progresses.

Read more about Neuroblastoma at https://www.nbhope.org

Art as a therapy for children has been proven to be effective in helping young patients cope with physical, mental, as well as emotional difficulties. Here are two children art exhibitions you might want to check out.

The “Welcome to Gulu” art exhibition at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Manhattan is one of a kind. The pieces of art it is exhibiting and selling are depicting one of the most horrendous of crimes – human trafficking and were painted by the children who have experienced this crime first hand. The 200 paintings on exhibit are works young artists who were former child soldiers and abducted girls from Gulu, a place in northern Uganda. They were unveiled in May at the New York headquarters of the United Nations. The works were produced in the framework of an art therapy project by critically acclaimed New York artist Ross Bleckner last January. These unique paintings seen through the eyes of abused and traumatized children will be on sale until this Saturday 13th June so it’s not yet too late to go and check them out. Proceeds from the sale will be allocated to helping the children of Gulu so it’s for a worthy cause.

Meanwhile, the Oncolink Art Gallery is a project of the cancer survivor site OncoLink and is featuring art works of the pediatric cancer patients at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Through art, children with the serious and life-threatening diseases can express their feelings, their hopes and fears. “Confronting cancer through art is an exhibition by people whose lives have been touched by cancer.”

The arduous story of the 13-year-old boy suffering from Hodkin’s Lymphoma is causing controversy from the Midwest to the west coast.

Daniel Hauser, from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in January. He underwent the first of six planned rounds of chemotherapy the same month. Then, he refused any more treatment, apparently with the support of his parents.

When Daniel didn’t show for the second course of chemotherapy, his doctor suspected that his parents were involved in his decision to refuse treatment, and in April called Minnesota child protective services to report them for neglect.

A court ordered that Daniel should have chemotherapy.

Then on Monday, before the chemotherapy was due to begin, Daniel and his mother disappeared. The mother and son have been spotted in Southern California, and some believe that they are trying to get to Mexico for alternative cancer treatments. A warrant has been issued for his mom’s arrest and when the pair are found, Daniel will be placed in foster care and will be seen by doctors again.

According to doctors involved in the case, Daniel is almost certain to die from his cancer if he has no more treatment. If he does complete the chemotherapy, his chances of survival are as high as 90%.

There seems to be some connection to a religion, The Nemenhah faith, which favors natural remedies and healing. But even the leader of the Nemenhah faith has called on Daniel’s mom to bring him home for conventional treatment.

I’m writing this in the middle of the night. My son woke up screaming, about an hour ago, he has a nasty case of diaper rash and as I was holding him, trying to help him calm down, I would have done just about anything to stop the tears and stop it hurting. That’s how mothers feel when their child is sick or in pain. My son just has diaper rash. Her son has cancer. Terminal cancer. Terminal cancer that could kill him within the month, according to the doctor who diagnosed Danny’s cancer.

I don’t understand why this mother is not doing everything she can to help her son. I just don’t get it. Is it really his choice to refuse treatment?  And if it is, why isn’t she trying to convince him to change his mind, not run away with him?

There’s speculation that the first round of chemotherapy was so hard on Daniel that he is scared to go through any more. Chemotherapy is grueling – the medicine used is basically a poison and the side effects are painful. But most of us, if we are unfortunate enough to have to make the choice, would choose the chemotherapy over a painful death from cancer, especially when we have so much of our lives ahead of us.

I don’t understand it, and can’t begin to imagine how Daniel and his mother are feeling, or what their true motivations are. I only hope that Daniel is found before his cancer kills him, and that the right people will be able to help him decide what treatment he truly wants.

Here is another use for breastmilk – testing for breast cancer. And if you are nursing or are planning to in the coming year, you might just consider volunteering for this research program.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are looking volunteers who:

• are breastfeeding or pumping breastmilk
• who have had a breast biopsy previously or who are scheduled to have one soon
• willing to donate breastmilk and answer a questionnaire

The purpose of the study funded by Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, is to investigate whether mythelated genes, which are indicators of pre-cancerous changes in breast tissue can be detected in cells found in breastmilk. The methylation process in breast cells can proceed towards cancer development. Thus, detecting methylation amounts to early detection of breast cancer.

Currently, the most commonly used screening method for breast cancer is mammography. However, the method presents some limitation, including discomfort, invasiveness, and radiation exposure.

Testing using breastmilk has the advantage of being non-invasive. In addition, unlike biopsy, breast milk gives a representative sample of cells from all the glands in the breast rather than just an isolated area of the breast.

For those of you who are interested in cancer prevention advocacy, then this is a good chance for you to show your support. More information can be found in the research program’s site www.breastmilkresearch.org.

Seven-year-old Caleb Crosby is hoping puppies can save his life.

The second grader from Augusta, Maine, was recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and, according to this article in the Portland Press Herald, has only two to six months to live.

Experimental treatment at a clinic in Houston may be his only hope for life, but the treatment, not covered by insurance, costs $100,000. Rather than admit defeat, the family has started fund raising efforts, including a benefit breakfast and a spaghetti dinner. In addition to the family’s ongoing efforts, Caleb’s elementary school raised $7,300 through community collections and fundraisers.

The article stated that the family now has enough money for Caleb’s initial consultation and to have a pump surgically implanted beneath his skin, which will administer medication.

Caleb is also registered with the Maine Make-A-Wish Foundation. His original wish was for “500 puppies of his own.” Since this wasn’t exactly practical, the Foundation discussed it with Caleb and decided on a Florida vacation. Caleb and his 10-year-old brother received VIP treatment on a trip to Disney World and Sea World in Orlando, Florida. He was taken to the airport by limo and given a “meet-and-greet” pass to meet Shamu the Killer Whale.

Meanwhile, mom-blogger and Maine-based author Jenn Hollowell and her mother-in-law Mary Moulton of Whitefield, Maine, read about the boy’s situation in their local paper, and launched a fund raising effort of their own. “My mother-in-law read the story,” Hollowell tells Babies Online, “and said to herself, ‘What about stuffed puppies?’”

Moulton followed this train of thought, and realized they could help by collecting stuffed puppies and then selling them to raise money to help defray the costs of Caleb’s medical care.

Hollowell said, “My mother-in-law called me up and said, ‘If anyone can help me organize this, you can!’”

Hollowell, a full-time blogger, freelance writer and work-at-home-mom of three, has a vast social network of other WAHMs, the perfect fit for a cause like Caleb’s.

Through her personal blog, Hollowell is collecting donations of stuffed puppies to sell to raise money for Caleb. You can also donate money directly to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for Caleb through Hollowell’s blog.

It just so happens that one of my daughter’s favorite toys is a Baby Einstein puppy that barks. No, I won’t make my five-month-old part with her favorite toy, but I’m currently scouring the Web for a new one that I can donate to Caleb’s cause. I might also be tempted to donate a stuffed version of what my husband calls “a proper dog,” “Stitch” from the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch.

So, I get to shop for stuffed toys, help an adorable little boy and make a small difference in the world. What could be better than that?

One cold day in January, somebody spray-painted names on steel beams in an ongoing construction site as a group of people watched from the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Bridge. No, it’s not a case of vandalism. The sprayer was an iron-worker and among his audience were a lot of children. The scene describe happened on January 29 this year at the construction site of the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care (YCCC) and the names on the beams spray-painted in neon colors are those of pediatric cancer patients. YCCC will be the state-of-the-art outpatient cancer care and clinical research facility in the Longwood campus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Many others cheered on the spray painters from the adjacent clinic windows.

For the Institute, this way of honoring cancer patients has become a ritual. It was first done in 1996 during the construction of a research lab next to YCCC. In fact, it was documented in an award-winning short film called “Strong as Iron.” which helped raise funds for the Institute. Click here for the trailer.

This year’s name spraying ritual was no less moving. Aside from spray painting the children’s names, short inspirational messages and smileys, as well as adult patient’s names were also added.

It’s a simple token and the beams will soon be covered as the construction progresses. But the gesture brought smiles and happiness to the young patients whose days are probably filled with dread and pain of chemotherapy. Even the hardened construction workers were so moved at the little ones’ gratitude that they spontaneously “passed the hard hat” to collect donations for the Institute’s Jimmy Fund.

The steel framing and the spray painting will continue till spring time so if you are in the area, drop by and check it out and pay homage to this unique way of honouring our cancer heroes.

For five days this fall, USA TODAY teamed with scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland to analyze 40 toxic chemicals in the air near America’s schools. Although the government checks the quantity of 6 smog-producing chemicals in the air, many high-risk area are not monitored, and only 3% of America’s schools are within a mile of a monitor. Since even small amounts of toxins can lead to physical dangers for children, the news team was anxious to call attention to the potential problem.

Using a government-created computer model that suggests where industrial pollutants may collect, USA TODAY chose 95 schools they believed were at risk. Their results suggest that two-thirds of these schools need follow-up studies.

The EPA determines that air is safe if the increased risk of cancer from a chemical is less than 1 in a million cases. But at 64 of the monitored schools, the levels were at least 10 times that amount, a level where the EPA considers working with local industry to lower their emissions. In three schools, benzene (linked to leukemia) levels were 100 times the EPA standard, or likely to increased cancer rates by 1 in 10,000 people.

Children breathe more air per pound than adults do, and process chemicals differently. Therefore, it is possible that pollutants could permanently alter their cells, leading to cancer later in life. Philip Landrigan, one of the nation’s foremost experts on pediatric medicine and a physician at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says, “Those mutations, once they take place, they’re hard-wired…they certainly put the child at greater risk of cancer, and that risk is life-long.”

Chemicals were found in both affluent and underprivileged schools, coast to coast. Here is a list of the worst schools, as well as a listing of the chemical found and their risks.

You can refer to Babies Online’s Green articles section for information on how to Protect Your Children With Green Cleaning or Amazingly Effective Tips On Environmentally Friendly Parenting plus much more.

Health conditions can range from the simply annoying to the potentially fatal. But it seems there are upsides to certain conditions that give us some food for thought. As in the case of allergies and gestational hypertension.

Allergies

This study by Cornell University researchers suggests that our annoying allergies, previously thought to be due to a malfunctioning immune system, are actually defense mechanisms that can protect us from certain types of cancer. Yes, the big C. Especially cancers involving organs exposed to the environment (e.g. skin, lungs, throat, uterus, cervix, and gastrointestinal tract). It seems that allergic reactions are a way in which our body tries to get rid of invading substances from the environment – including toxins and carcinogens. So next time you feel the hay fever coming, think twice before you start moaning.

Pre-eclampsia

Now, nobody would wish to have this pregnancy complication, considering the risks involved. Sometimes called gestational hypertention, pre-eclampsia can present risks to both mother and fetus in the form of miscarriage, pre-term delivery, and fetal problems. But would you believe it that mommies who had pre-eclampsia have baby boys with lower risks for testicular cancer? This is according to a study by Swedish researchers. This doesn’t mean that normal pregnancies translate into increased risks for this cancer for the babies. Let’s just say, it’s just a little bit of silver lining to the very dark cloud of pre-eclampsia. This upside notwithstanding, pre-eclampsia is still something best avoided.

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

And here is another one of those association studies that can tell your risk for breast cancer. This time it’s size at birth that predicts your susceptibility to breast cancer.

By size, they refer to the length and weight at birth, as well as the head circumference. The data came from 32 studies involving more than 600,000 women in developed countries, of whom more than 22,000 had breast cancer. The size measurements were taken from birth records. Those who were found to be at higher risk were:

• Women with birth length of 51 cm or more.
• Women whose head circumference was 35 cm or more.
• Women who weighed more than 4 kg at birth.

Simply put, the longer you were as baby, the higher is your risk to have breast cancer later in life. Of the three size measurements, birth length seems to have the strongest association to breast cancer risk, followed by head circumference, and the birth weight

According to the authors, it is “the strongest evidence yet that birth size is a critical determinant of breast cancer risk in adult life.”

Now, of course it’s handy that just by looking at my birth certificate, I would know my risk for breast cancer.

Of course it would help if the study can tell us the reason behind this “birth size-breast cancer association.” Unfortunately it can’t give any explanation about the connection at the moment. Hopefully, we’ll know more in the future.

Thousands of children die of cancer every year. It is only appropriate that a month should be dedicated to increasing awareness of these diseases.

In the US, September is the month of Childhood Cancer Awareness. The objective of this initiative is “to spotlight childhood cancer and survivorship issues related to childhood cancer nationally.”

The organization CureSearch formed together by the Children’s Oncology Group, and the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, gives us the following statistics:

In the age group of 20-below which accounts for about 30% of the US population, about 12, 400 are diagnosed with cancer annually.

About 1 in 300 boys and 1 in 333 girls will develop cancer before they reach the age of 20.

Incidence of cancer in children is highest during the first year of life. The cancer rate is higher among children aged below 5 and those aged 15 to 20 years old compared to those in the age group 5 to 14.

Among young children, the most common types of cancer diagnosed are neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, retinoblastoma, ependymoma, and hepatoblastoma. Among those aged 15 to 19 years old, germ cell tumors, Hodgkins disease, and bone cancers are the most common types of cancer observed.

A recent study has stated that women who were breastfed as babies have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer. According to the study, women who were breastfed as infants ‘had a 17 percent decrease in breast cancer risk’ note one member of the study team, Hazel B. Nichols. She further stated that, ‘we did not observe this reduction when we looked specifically among first-born women.’

The researchers interviewed over 2016 women between 29 and 60 years old who had breast cancer and 1,960 in the same age group who didn’t. The survey revealed a lower breast cancer risk among women who had older siblings regardless of their mother’s age when she gave birth.

The study team noted as well that additional studies were needed to determine if the length of breastfeeding also impacted the reduction in the risk of developing breast cancer among women who were breastfed.

The article published in Epidemiology, a medical journal suggests that there may also be a link between the ‘levels of environmental contaminants in breast milk and breast cancer’. Previous studies have also indicated that there be well be some connection to contaminants in the environment and breast cancer.

As a firstborn daughter and child, this is not great news to me personally. However, it is important for a lot of women and as a woman I’m glad to know that breastfeeding may help ward off breast cancer for our daughters.

OK, it may seem like I’m on a breastfeeding promotion, but I just find these bit of information when I am surfing the Internet for news. But seriously, with all the information out there, if it is possible to breastfeed – I say go for it. The breast really is best!

However, if you are unable to breastfeed for whatever reason, don’t beat yourself up; just continue taking care of your baby the best way you can. Luckily there are lots of baby formulas on the market fortified with nutrients found only in breast milk.

Lorraine Allard of St. Olaves, U.K. is as selfless as they come. According to Fox News, while expecting her fourth child Allard learned that she had advanced liver cancer.

Allard’s choices were either to delay treatment of the cancer, which would save her baby, or end her pregnancy, saving herself. She chose to save her baby and, therefore, possibly lose her own life.

“If I am going to die, my baby is going to live,” Allard told her husband, Martyn.

A week early, on November 18th, Allard gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Liam.

Doctors said they were unable to do anything for the cancer because Allard was pregnant. They believe she had bowel cancer which, gone undetected, had spread to her liver. Allard was suffering from stomach cramping when the cancer was discovered. Doctors then found that her liver was taken over by malignant tumors.

Sadly, only two months after Liam’s birth, Allard lost her battle with liver cancer. She had begun chemotherapy after her son’s birth, but it was too late to rid her body of the cancer.

Lorraine Allard was able to hold her newborn son several times before she died. Liam is the Allard’s only boy. Their other children are Leah, 10; Amy, 8; and Courtney, 20 months.

Allard’s husband says, “Towards the end we knew things weren’t going well, but she was overjoyed that she had given life to Liam.”

Allard was only 33 years old.

I think if I was placed in the same situation as Lorraine Allard I would have taken the same path. I would do anything for my children and being a mother means lots of little sacrifices and sometimes huge ones as well. Judging by this mom’s humble actions I’m sure she’d say that she was just doing what she should as a mother. Times like these make all of us truly proud to be mothers.

I had a nephew who did not taste a drop of breastmilk in his short life. And I say ’short life’ because he was diagnosed with a congenital type of cancer at age two. He, Pyro, valiantly fought for over a year but the cancer was too aggressive and his body so young. I had often wondered if things could have gone better for him had he been breastfed. He died at age three.

I was a breastfeeding advocate even before I got married. And when we found out that we were pregnant, we made sure we got all the help we can get to prepare for the baby. We attended breastfeeding seminars and in these seminars we were often told that one of the benefits of breastfeeding is lowering risks for certain types of cancer for both the mother and the child.

So having suffered much pain over the loss of my nephew, I vowed even more to breastfeed my child.

Breastfeeding was one of ten recommendations in the conclusion of a recently published report (Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective) by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR). It was found that after looking at a host of variables with diet, nutrition, weight and activity, lactation was the only one found to lower risk of breast cancer throughout a woman’s life. This is especially good news since the breast cancer that afflicts women before menopause is different from the one they have after menopause. It is believed that the protection is linked to breastfeeding’s effect on a woman’s hormones, which delays the return of menstruation. It has already been established that the fewer menstrual cycles a woman has during her lifetime, the lower her risk for breast cancer gets.

Breastfeeding also protects the child from cancer in two ways. First, breastmilk provides protection from the more common childhood cancers like leukemia by passing on the mother’s antibodies which boosts the baby’s immune system and possibly stops any genetic changes. Secondly, breastfeeding protects from developing obesity in the child, possibly due to the transfer of appetite-regulating hormone leptin. Fats from childhood are carried over into adulthood, an excess of which has been convincingly linked by AICR experts to cause six common cancers: colon, kidney, pancreas, endometrium, adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and post-menopausal breast cancer. Essentially, not being overweight when you were young because you were breastfed will lower your risks for these types of cancer in adulthood.

These findings should especially encourage more women to breastfeed exclusively for six months to get maximum benefits. Furthermore, the longer a woman breastfeeds, the more anti-cancer benefits she gets for herself and gives to her child. Breastfeeding has been touted to have so many benefits and medical research has proven again and again that these are true. There really is no good reason NOT to breastfeed and surely, the threat of cancer is more than enough reason to insist on all the protection one can get… and in breastfeeding’s case, give.

Talk about long-term investments.

Source:
Medical News Today

According to WBALTV, because pregnant women receive a pap test routinely during their pregnancy, doctors are catching instances of cervical cancer that might have gone undiagnosed. Doctors say some of the women may not have gotten pap tests otherwise.

Though we know pap screens are incredibly important why do we still put these tests off? Other than financial/insurance issues, there is no excuse for skipping this routine test.

Sure, it can be uncomfortable and yes, we are all busy, but I wager cancer and treatment is more uncomfortable and nothing puts a kink in a schedule like chemotherapy.

I say this both to you readers, and to myself. I have missed my own appointment three times since August. Let’s start encouraging and holding each other accountable for our own health.

Two recent studies have indicated that ginger is good for treating cancer. Various studies have shown its beneficial effects with breast cancer, ovarian cancer, skin cancer and bowel cancer.

A study at the University of Michigan found that not only does ginger kill cancer cells but that it also stops the cells becoming resistant to treatment. In addition it has virtually no side effects. Research at the University of Minnesota’s Hormel Institute indicates that ginger may be of use in bowel cancer. The National Cancer Institute has given ginger as one of the top ten foods with high anticancer activity.

Ginger’s healing benefits have long been revered. Apparently the ancient Indians used to eat large quantities of it before religious celebrations to make themselves presentable to the Gods. The Ancient Chinese used to chew the root to help seasickness, and even now it is popular for travel sickness and morning sickness. Apparently Elizabeth I had a special chef who would make pictures of her guests out of gingerbread.

Whilst all this is good news, there is still plenty more research required to provide full information and recommendations. However, in the meantime why not keep going with those gingerbread cookies!!

Further information

Wikipedia

Ginger May Fight Ovarian Cancer

Ginger ‘Could Halt Bowel Cancer’

Ginger Root

Ginger – University of Maryland