Trevor Schaefer

After my diagnosis of brain cancer in 2002, I became very concerned about the environmental factors that might be contributing to the increasing prevalence of childhood cancer.  Hearing the words “you have cancer” is just about the worst thing you can hear as a young child, unfortunately it is heard much to often.

There are many lasting side effects of cancer treatment that are virtually unheard of by anyone who has not been touched by cancer personally in some way. I am passionate about raising awareness of childhood cancer because I have, and still am experiencing what can happen when people do not have the proper knowledge of this vicious disease. I can take a perfect example of this from my own life.

When I was told that I had cancer the first word that came to my mind was “death”. I think the only time I had ever heard the word was on the news when some well-known celebrity died of cancer. I was completely! Unaware that cancer can strike anyone at any age, at anytime. It was not until I started going tough my cancer treatments and getting check-ups at St. Lukes Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise, Idaho that I became aware of all the young children with cancer that I realized something was wrong. It was like the childhood cancer ward was a hidden room with no apparent knowledge from the outside world. Well it is time to pull the cloak off of the childhood cancer ward and reveal to everyone what has been happening to our children.

Children are the future; cancer can destroy that.