Mayor, Township Committee Recognizes Long Valley Families Devastated By Childhood Cancers

LONG VALLEY, NJ — With about 400,000 children diagnosed yearly with cancer throughout the world and about 15,780 - or 43 kids each day - being given a diagnosis in the United States annually, Washington Township declared September 2021 “Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.”

According to statistics provided by the township on the proclamation, which Mayor Matt Murello and the Township Committee presented this past Wednesday to the Crowley and McFarland families - with childhood cancers having had devastating effects on their each of them - cancers in children are increasing at alarming rates, with seven of every 43 children diagnosed passing away from their illnesses.

“No parent should ever have to lose their child,” Murello posted in his announcement about the proclamation to his Facebook followers.

Sarah Crowley, the daughter of Ingrid and Ken Crowley, was one of the children who fought courageously, the West Morris Central High School student only 15 when she passed away on April 18, 2017.

Murello gave a nod to the organization her parents started in her memory, “Sarah’s Fight For HOPE Foundation.”

The not-for-profit and volunteer foundation assists New Jersey families with children from newborn to 19-years-old, who are challenged by cancer diagnoses, while children are actively being treated, all donations directly benefitting families, according to their website.

Some other statistics that Washington Township provided about childhood cancers:

• Childhood cancers in adolescents and young adults is the age group that has cancers appearing at a growing rate, the only group with the greatest number of cancer cases ahead of it, the 65 and up age group.
• The average age that children die from cancer is at eight-years-old, losing 70 years of their expected lifespan.
• Cancer metastasize faster in children, with 80 percent of kids not always diagnosed as quickly as adults.
• Most childhood cancer causes are unknown.
• Under four percent of the National Cancer Institute’s budget is earmarked to childhood cancer research.
• Only two cancer drugs for children have been approved by the FDA over the past 25 years.
• Chemotherapy treatments used on children with cancers were developed more than 25 years ago.

Some other statistics furnished on Sarah’s Fight For HOPE Foundation’s website, from the American Cancer Society in 2021:

• Approximately 10,500 kids in the United States less than 15 years of age, have been or will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
• Kids between the ages of 15 and 19 are diagnosed yearly at the rate of 5,000 to 6,000 adolescents.
• Childhood cancers have increased in the last few decades.
• Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children up to age 14, with accidents the first.
• In 2021, 1,190 kids less than 15-years-old are predicted to pass away from cancer.
• Adolescents, between the ages of 15 and 19, die yearly from cancer, at the rate of 500 to 600.
• In adolescents, cancer is within the top four causes of death, with accidents, suicide and homicide preceding it statistically.

Visit www.sarahsfightforhope.org for more information.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.