September is National Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month
Three and a half years in and I never knew this. Or, maybe I did and I forgot. Who knows.
September and Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month.
Did you know?
- About 1,596,670 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2011.
- In 2011, about 571,950 Americans are expected to die of cancer, more than 1,500 people a day. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the US, exceeded only by heart disease. In the US, cancer accounts for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths.
Since my main diagnosis is chronic lymphocytic leukemia (secondary is small lymhocytic lymphoma), let’s talk a little about it.
- An estimated 44,600 new cases of leukemia are expected in 2011.
- An estimated 21,780 deaths are expected to occur in 2011.
- Leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow and blood, is classified into four groups according to cell type: acute lymphocytic (ALL), chronic lymphocytic (CLL), acute myeloid (AML), and chronic myeloid (CML).
- Survival rates vary substantially by leukemia type, ranging from a 5 year relative survival of 24% for patients diagnosed with AML to 80% for those with CLL.
- All stats come from Cancer Facts & Figures 2011 on the ACS website.
People always tell me they don’t know what to say or don’t know what to do, here are a few suggestions.
- If you area not already, consider becoming a bone marrow donor. Joining the registry is not hard and you could possibly save someones life (maybe me someday:).
- Work with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. There are TONS of way to help from donating money to volunteering and running.
- Same goes for the American Cancer Society. Their trademark event is Relay For Life, but there are tons of other opportunities.
- Or, turn Facebook/Twitter orange to help raise awareness. Snag the graphic below and set it as your profile picture for the month of September.
*I claim no credit for either of these graphics, they were both snagged from Google images.*
