Journey 4 A Cure

My friend Kiran at Masala Chica reached out to ask for help winning money to fight pediatric cancer. The son of a dear friend of hers passed away last year, just before his first birthday.

It is devastating to think about. In fact, I can't think about it without getting all teary. So it's not something to which I'd given much though, except for reading Kiran's posts and feeling so sad for them.

Then Kiran started mobilizing people to vote for Journey 4 A Cure, which, if it gets enough votes, will winn $250,000 towards pediatric cancer research.



Because she knows what she is talking about, and because she said it well, I've stolen the text below from Kiran. (Here's her original post.)

Statistics are hard to look at. They are even harder to believe. And they give a whole new perspective to where our children might be most vulnerable.

Reality: Pediatric cancer is the #1 disease related killer of children in the United States.

Reality: Only 1 drug has been approved by the FDA in the last 30 years to fight pediatric cancer. In comparison to the 50 medications approved for adult cancers in the same time span, we are looking at a truly crippled treatment process for children.

Harsher Reality: Childhood cancer research is not only underfunded, but funding has declined.

WHY?

Really, really crappy reality: It's a numbers game. With children cancer comprising only 5% of all cancer diagnoses annually, pharmaceutical companies don't see a business case to fund treatment research.

No family should hear the words, there is no known cure.

For any disease.

Sadly, too many parents will have to hear those words in our lifetime if we don't mobilize.

Journey 4 a Cure is dedicated to seeing beyond the business case and working to build a case around the lives of families that need the research, that are praying for their children, and who are bravely fighting the odds to keep their journey going.

This post is a request to help Journey 4 a Cure to meet their goals. Ways you can help:

1) Vote for Journey 4 A Cure every day on the Vivint project page. Vivent will be giving 1.25 million dollars to worthwhile causes, and we are trying to win our regional grand prize of $250,000 - 100% of the proceeds will go towards pediatric cancer research if we win.

2) Did I mention voting EVERY day? Oh yeah. I think so. Please keep it going until August 27th.

3) If you are a blogger, can you repost one of the badges from the Vivint site in honor of Journey 4 a Cure? Would you ask other bloggers to support the cause?

4) Would you post the project in your facebook status? I cannot stress how much winning this money would do towards the fight against pediatric cancer.

5) Hug your kids. Love them. And pray that they never have to face cancer or any other disease that can rob them of the youth they all so deserve.

6) Beyond praying, please join us in our journey. Every vote counts.

PS from Lisa: In order to vote, you are going to have to allow Vivint to access your Facebook information. Yes, it's kind of annoying to allow one more company access to your info...but it's so little effort for a very good cause.