Cancer is something which devastates thousands of families every year. Not only are there the countless victims who tragically lose their lives to the illness, but countless lives are blighted by diagnoses which may not be immediately terminal but will pose a real threat to the quality and comfort of sufferers' lives. It is a condition that only needs to be named to send a shiver up the spines of anyone who has known it. It is all the more disturbing when cancer attacks a child. For anyone who has lost a family member to cancer, or seen how it can prey on the body of even someone who survives, it is something that no-one would want to see twice.



The American Children's Society is a charity set up to help child sufferers of cancer and their families. By raising money to pay for treatment and other necessities they allow the child and their family to concentrate solely on trying to recover from the dreadful illness which has visited them. The truth of the matter is that without the help of the American Children's Society there are many families who would be unable to join the battle with their children's illness anywhere near as successfully as they presently do. The Society has in recent years helped out in raising donations and providing support in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as well as its help for families suffering as a result of a child's cancer diagnosis. It is still, however, cancer that remains the major focus of the American Children's Society, especially in the light of certain quite shocking statistics.

Each year, for example, more than 12,000 children below the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. Before their adult life has even started, this means that they have to deal with an illness that attacks very aggressively and requires an incredible amount of strength to fight it. An illness that leaves adults comprehensively broken, and which attacks more than 35 children every day. And yet there are survivors, there are people who manage to break the stranglehold of the horrible illness that is cancer and go on to live completely normal lives, thanks in no small part to organizations such as the American Children's Society.

Among the many excellent initiatives run by the ACS, there is a campaign of automobile donation which allows drivers to gift their old cars to the charity for use in their fundraising and logistical efforts to take the fight to the road and beat children's' cancer. These vehicles allow the Society to assist families with transport needs, equipment and various other aids which can make a huge level of difference to a child's recovery. It is necessary that organizations like the American Children's Society can do the work that they do, because every year the number of children who are diagnosed with cancer increases. One day the tide will be turned back, but it will require the help of organizations like this to ensure that this is the case.