I'm Lucas, I'm 11 years old. On February 4th 2013 I was diagnosed with high risk t-cell lymphoma. I know right, cancer, how could I have cancer. I never smoked,  how could I be so sick. You see my great grandmother is still alive, it's funny I should mention her because her mother was even cooler then she is. Yes I've met her too, so, I got to meet my grandfather's grandmother, she passed away when I was 2 and she was 100 at the time, imagine that, and there I was diagnosed with cancer at 8 years older . I was fighting the battle of my life at 8 years old. My only worry should have been about not breaking bones while I ran on the basketball court or while playing football in the park with my friends. My life changed completely from one day to the next. I couldn't see my friends or even members of my family as I had no immune system, I had to spend days and days In the hospital, it's so hard to stay in bed all day, it may sound good at 1st but let me tell you it gets to you, when you know everyone else is out playing and you can't go, it's so hard. All I wanted to do was be a kid. Quickly into my treatment I lost ALL my hair, that was the worse, it was worse then feeling sick, it was worse then the pain chemo caused, it was worse then the exhaustion I had from chemo. Nothing compared to loosing my hair. It was a sure confirmation to the world that I was sick. I felt so bad on days when I felt good enough to go out, I didn't want to go because I felt as if everyone was staring at me, i couldn't go to the park and play with my friends because I felt like they had to be extra careful with me, it got to me. It was awful. I made new friends, but then a few month later, my friends lost their battle and they weren't around, do you have any idea how scary that is. I was just sitting there fighting for my life not knowing why or how I got cancer. Did my body fail me? Did I fail my body? I don't know, we don't know what causes cancer, but what we do know is that even dinosaurs had cancer, we know great warriors had cancer, cancer doesn't care who you are, if you're old, young, what race you are, if you're rich or poor, cancer effects more the 600.000 kids every year. Imagine that, we live in the 21st century, we can fly into space, but we still don't know what causes cancer. Something needs to be done, something needs to change now. I remember when I got to the maintenance faze of my treatment and my hair started growing back, I was so happy, I felt as if I had wings to fly, I was a normal kid again, that's all we want to be, I just wanted my old life back, I didn't want a new normal, my old normal was so awesome, I don't get to choose. I remember my 1st day when I went back to school, and everyone embraced me as if I had never left, but I wasn't the same kid, I was different, I'm always going to feel different, cancer stole my innocence, cancer stole my childhood, cancer tried to steal me too but I was stronger, kids like me need a cure We need to spend more money and more time on research, we need to invest in this now, we don't have time to waste. I wrote a book about my experience it's called the battle for life and there's a fictional character about me named Elidoc, it was the only way I could heal from this, writing this helped me heal, I hope readying it will help others heal too.