Thank you for supporting me and the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure.We as children deserve to have better and more affordable treatment options. Our bodies respond different than an adults body. We are still growing! Our bodies are constantly changing and when we get cancer at such young ages that hinders our future due to the only treatment & surgical options available to us now. I was 5 years old when I started experiencing symptoms of my type of cancer-- Synovial Sarcoma. Yes, sarcoma is another word for cancer. I had a very painful bump under my knee that showed up when I was in kindergarten. It continued to grow and get more painful as time went on, yet it took doctors until I was 8 years old to properly diagnose me. So, on August 14, 2018 I was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma just 5 weeks before my 9th birthday. I missed almost my entire 3rd grade year of school. I lost friends because I couldn't participate in team sports anymore. (which I loved!) I no longer have 2 normal looking or functioning legs like most kids. I've been exposed to more radiation in the 9 months since my diagnosis than majority of adults are exposed to in their entire lives. I've been separated from my best friends, my 8 year old (twin) baby brother and sister for weeks/months at a time. I've had 5 operations in 9 months. I spent months in a wheelchair because my leg bone was taken out to remove my cancer. I couldn't receive radiation treatment where the tumor was because it would stop my growth plates from continuing to grow which would mean that I'd have a 9 year old left leg for the rest of my life. And this is still a big risk for me because I had to have several operations where my growth plates are because I wasn't properly diagnosed. The chemotherapy used against my particular cancer isn't proven to be effective in curing you. I didn't have any other options other than surgery because my body still needs to grow, alot. If more research was done and less toxic treatment options were available my leg may not look the way it does and might still work right. I'm at a higher risk of recurrence because of the fact that there's very little options for treatment for pediatric sarcoma. Everything in my life changed when I was diagnosed with cancer even though I didn't really understand what was happening. It happened so fast. When the doctors talked to my parents and to me about my body and what they could do to help it scared me. The things I had to hear, see and experience were scary. I still am scared because we literally live scan to scan because we don't know when or if my sarcoma will come back. The truth is, we are begging for you to join us in the fight against childhood cancer! We shouldn't have to live with scarred up, poisoned and disabled bodies because of the only treatment options available to us. We deserve better than this and should be able to live long-happy-healthy lives like the other kids. Please help be our voice in the fight against childhood cancer! Cancer doesn't discriminate. It could be your loved one who's next. Please help us stand up to childhood cancer! -Ciara Husing (age 9)Www.facebook.com/teamCIARA