31/08/2025
Thank you for the incredible work you do in supporting Sarcoma awareness Cooper Rice-Brading Foundation
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Australia at a glance:
- Approximately 1,000 children & young adults are diagnosed with cancer each year (AIHW 2025)
- On average, 70 potential years of life are lost when a young person dies (CCIA, 2025)
- 5,600 children undergo cancer treatment annually (HIMR, 2025)
- Three children per week will die of cancer (CCIA)
- In 2024, 191 children were projected to have died from cancer (AIHW)
- Survival for childhood cancer sits at 80%, due to clinical research (CCIA, 2025)
- Survivors often face long-term, sometimes life-long health issues, because current treatments can be harsh and affect growing bodies.
Among cancers where progress has stagnated, are sarcomas.
Paediatric & AYA sarcoma in Australia:
- On average, one child/AYA sarcoma related death every 1.5 weeks .(AIHW, 2025)
- 24% of childhood/AYA cancer deaths in 2024 were attributed to sarcomas (AIHW, 2025)
- Survival rates and treatment options have barely improved in 40 years
- Every sarcoma patient, young & old, carries the weight of a diagnosis that is often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, underfunded, & under-researched.
This month also brings into focus the many emotions families may experience:
- Those yet to be diagnosed – whose lives can be turned upside down in an instant.
- Those living with childhood cancer – enduring treatments no child should face and no parent should be forced to witness
- Survivors – navigating lifelong physical and emotional scars
- Those we have lost – leaving an unimaginable void that will never be filled, and a love that will never fade
We also recognise those moving the dial:
- Researchers and scientists – driving hope through better treatments and cures.
- Philanthropic partners and donors – making life-changing research possible
- Support agencies and advocacy groups – walking with families through the hardest journeys
- Clinicians, nurses, and allied health teams - delivering care, compassion, and strength.
Childhood cancer is never rare to the families who live it. Together, we must raise awareness, fund vital research, and support families, so that no young person’s story is rewritten by cancer.
