Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and I am wearing the gold ribbon to be part of the Gold Ribbon Campaign.
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We do not often think about it, but cancer is the number one cause of death by disease among Canadian children, killing more of our children than all other diseases combined.
Yet research is not keeping up, and the treatments for adults that nearly kill a healthy person, things like chemotherapy and radiation, can do permanent damage to the health of our young people, even when they recover from cancer.
The Gold Ribbon Campaign is asking for more research into childhood cancers, more ability to treat them in ways that allow the kids to really recover, and more help, more blood products for Canadian kids.
I wear my gold ribbon today thinking of Stephanie Simmons, who started this campaign in London, Ontario, and of my daughter’s best friend Kaila Remillard, who succumbed to cancer years after suffering from it and whose mother also supports the Candlelighters campaign.
Let us help our children avoid cancer. Let us help them recover. Let us help them be well.