For Members of Congress, and Staff:
This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, please consider supporting H.Res.404, the bipartisan DIPG Awareness Resolution introduced by Rep. Debbie Dingell and Rep. David Joyce, to make history for kids living with cancer.
Childhood cancer:
- Cancer is the #1 disease-related cause of death in children, and brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death in children.
- Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) is one of the most common pediatric brain concerns, accounting for the most childhood deaths due to brain tumors.
- Less than one percent of children diagnosed with DIPG live move than five years after diagnosis.
- There’s been no change in the standard treatment protocol for DIPG, nor its prognosis, since Neil Armstrong’s daughter died of it in 1962
H.Res. 404 would shine national attention on DIPG and push our nation one step closer toward identifying a cure. The legislation:
- increases awareness of childhood cancers like DIPG and its devastating childhood mortality rates
- underscores unmet DIPG needs, including a lack of adequate federal funding for research for pediatric cancers in general
- supports expanded research to better understand DIPG and effective treatments as we work toward a cure
- most importantly, it encourages public and private sources of research funding to elevate their consideration of the mortality rate of a type of cancer, as well as the life-years lost, as significant factors to be considered during the grant application process. In other words, it suggests the need to prioritize children and the dying for investment into cures.
No family or child should have to experience the devastating disease that is DIPG, and it is critical these children know they have someone fighting for them as they battle for their own health. That’s why the DIPG Awareness Resolution is referred to as “moonshot4kids.” If we addressed childhood cancer with the same urgency as the original moonshot to beat the Russians, but to save our children, we’d have a cure for DIPG within 2 years.
It’s more important than ever to pass H.Res.404 – over 2600 more children have died from DIPG alone since the resolution was first introduced in 2016. Help us make history for childhood cancer by joining the over 200 cosponsors who have already pledged their support for this cause.
To be added, please contact Meg Makarewicz at Congresswoman Dingell’s office 202-225-4071 ([email protected])
…or contact Will Mascaro at Congressman Joyce’s office 202-225 4341 ([email protected]). Thank you for your consideration of this important request.
DIPG Advocacy Group Letter to Congress | H. Res. 404 Press Summary
DIPG Advocacy Group contact: Janet Demeter, [email protected], 818-400-2724
