The Susan G.Komen Foundation
1-800-I'M AWARE
(1-800-462-9273)
The Speak Out for Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign is sponsored by Samsung and Sprint PCS. The campaign focuses on a limited edition book commissioned and published by Samsung and Sprint PCS.
The book, "Kids Talk: Kids Speak Out About Breast
Cancer," is available
free to those who are
diagnosed with breast cancer by calling the Komen Foundation
at 1-800-I'M AWARE
(1-800-462-9273).
Breast cancer patients can also
receive information about support and services that are
available nationwide by calling this number.
"Kids Talk: Kids Speak Out About Breast Cancer," is beautifully illustrated and written from the point of view of 6-10 year olds. Laura Numeroff and Dr. Wendy Harpham wrote the book. Illustrated by David McPhail, the book depicts children as friendly animal people that children find easy to relate with. The book encourages children to understand the overwhelming emotions they encounter when a parent is diagnosed with cancer.
Children who have read this book are delighted with the 'club' aspect of the characters--a support group of 'real' kids who share their experiences in each of the stories. The book offers a look at real issues faced by real children.
Dr. Harpham's personal touch is evident in the book because of her own experience as a long term cancer survivor and mother. She recalled the time one of her children got a rash and wondered if it was cancer because a rash was a sign for her that her own cancer was active.
Children may need reassuarance that cancer is not something they can catch--an issue that is explained in one of the stories in the book when a six year old wonders whether she can catch her mom's cancer, and the mother explains that like you can't catch a broken arm, you can't catch cancer.
Many times children feel like "they're the only kid whose dealing with a bald mom... sickness, and hospitals," according to Dr. Harpham. The underlying message of the book is that ten different children are sharing their stories and sending the message to other children that "it's not just you." Most of the stories are composites based on her own children's experiences, as well as the hundreds of stories she has heard from other families in her travels across North America speaking about helping children when a parent has cancer.
Children facing cancer issues may not feel like much sitting down and reading books. For that reason, Ms. Numeroff and Dr. Harpham designed the book as combination scrapbook/ support group so that each page is a separate entity--children don't have to sit and listen to the beginning, middle, and end of a long story to get something from it--a family can sit down and open up at any page and have a complete story dealing with a different issue. The book explores issues that range from a child's fear that cancer is contagious to finding hope and helping mom when she isn't feeling well.
What is Your Risk of Developing Breast Cancer?
- By age 25--one in 19, 608
- By age 30--one in 2,525
- By age 35--one in 622
- By age 40--one in 217
- By age 45--one in 93
- By age 50--one in 50
- By age 55--one in 33
- By age 60--one in 24
- By age 65--one in 17
- By age 70--one in 14
- By age 75--one in 11
- By age 80--one in 10
- By age 85--one in 9
- Lifetime risk--one
in 8
The Komen Foundation will mail you a free breast self-exam shower card, when you email your address to them. Don't forget your breast self-exam!
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