Advocacy:

- CureSearch
- St. Baldrick's Foundation
- The Childhood Brain Tumor Prevention Network Act of 2009
- Get Involved in Volunteer Advocacy through Mira's Movement

CureSearch
CureSearch unites the world's largest childhood cancer research organization, the Children's Oncology Group (COG), and the National Childhood Cancer Foundation through our mission to cure childhood cancer. Research is the key to the cure. The COG is the world's largest pediatric cancer research consortium, encompassing over 200 facilities in the United States and abroad. We support CureSearch as volunteer advocates by talking with elected officials on their behalf and by representing them at events aimed at educating the public about childhood cancer and the work that CureSearch does in that field.

St. Baldrick's Foundation
Mira's Movement supports the private fundraising for pediatric cancer research being done by St. Baldrick's Foundation. We organized the first Ithaca St. Baldrick's Day fundraiser in March 2008 and raised $22,000. In 2009, we raised nearly $54,000 for St. Baldricks which, by the way, has a 4 out of 4 star rating from Charity Navigator. As donors, we want to be sure our money is going to an organization that is focused on KIDS with cancer, which is what St. Baldrick's does! This year's Ithaca event, to be held March 28, 2010, at Lakewatch Inn in Ithaca, is going to be the biggest yet. Come join us!

The Childhood Brain Tumor Prevention Network Act of 2009
January 21, 2009—The National Childhood Brain Tumor Prevention Network Act of 2009 was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA 9th District) and was also introduced in the Senate by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA). It was at the request of Mira's Movement that Senator Schumer came to sponsor this bill, and we thank him for his support of this important effort.

This first-of-its-kind legislation would provide $25 million a year for five years for research into the epidemiology (cause) of brain tumors in children. The act mandates the creation of a Pediatric Brain Tumor Prevention Network to provide grants and coordinate research to determine risk factors and causes of childhood brain tumors. The act would mandate the creation of 'catchment' areas- groups of children diagnosed with brain tumors based on the region of the country in which they live. This creates larger groups of data to examine, providing statistically significant results, which have never before been available. Funded research will investigate:

•  environmental exposures
•  nutrition (what kinds of food, how many calories, etc.)
•  genetics (parents and child), epigentics (what turns genes off or on)
•  blood taken at birth (has the child's DNA changed since birth)
•  type of brain tumor (pilocytic astrocytoma, ependymoma, etc.)
•  region where the child lives in comparison to other regions

Click here to learn more and get involved in supporting this legislation.

To subscribe to our mailing list, please e-mail jointhefight@mirasmovement.org and tell us your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. If you are a family member of a child with cancer, please let us know your relationship to that child and with what type of cancer they were diagnosed.

Thank you for joining the fight!