Imagine a cancer-free future. We can.

That’s why staff are keen to share their excitement about Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and let the world know that when increased focus is placed on searching for cures and improving treatments we can take great leaps forward. These leaps will improve the lives of children with cancer and build our knowledge to help make it a disease of the past.

See staff in the Cancer Centre for Children and our research arm, the Children’s Cancer Research Unit (CCRU), spreading the word below.

A poem  

Every year in September, 

we look to honour, and remember

Children with cancer, their families and community

bringing greater awareness, and support, at every opportunity.

We are never too clever, too passionate, too wild,

to work for the betterment of a sick child.

We are never too curious, too dedicated, too geek,

to undertake bold research, and climb to the peak.

By Janet Clarkson, Research and Development Manager CCRU

Spot the gold hats!

Amy Sarker is a PHD candidate at CCRU who is part of our gold hat brigade featuring on social media to raise awareness about childhood cancer. She is researching an anti-migration drug for brain cancer. One of the most difficult things about the cancer she is studying is that it invades quickly into healthy brain cells making it difficult to remove with surgery. The drug aims to stop the invading behaviour making the cancer easier to treat.

Louise Orcheston-Findlay is a postdoctoral researcher at CCRU. She is working on 3D printing cancer spheroids (solid shapes) and creating healthy mini-brain structures from stem cells to test drugs in the lab in a realistic environment. This research will lead to safer and more effective treatments for children with cancer.

Join us in raising awareness of childhood cancer during September. You can start conversations about childhood cancer, wear gold (or yellow) or create food or art in this theme, share social media from the Kid’s Research Twitter feed which is highlighting Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, create your own awareness initiatives, or fundraise. Together we can make a difference.

If you’re raising awareness in a special way and want to share your great idea, let us know.