THOMASVILLE, GA (WALB) - The overall cure rate for childhood cancer has improved from 20 to 80 percent over the last 50 years, but many children are still lost to the disease.
On March 13th 2009, Julia Johnson was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. And on July 6th of this year, she was cured. "We're just thankful first and foremost that God allowed Julia to be healed."
Julia's mother Sharon is working with ten other families in Thomasville affected by childhood cancer.
Starting Friday night at the Thomasville versus Thomas County football game, those parents will be raising money towards a cure.
Parents say these two schools may be bitter rivals on the football field, but they are teammates in the fight against cancer.
This is the second year Sharon and the other parents are involved with Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Last year they raised $10K, but this year they have a goal of $46K. $1K for every child diagnosed with cancer each day. "In my journey on this with my daughter I've thought a lot about the moms and dads 40 years ago that lost their child and what did they do? Apparently they did something to help raise money and help raise awareness and funding for research," said Sharon.
Sharon says she truly appreciates everything the doctors and researchers did for her Julia. "I feel as her mother I have to pay that forward for future generations of children."
Along with collecting money at tomorrow's game, these parents have put together two other fundraising events.
Next weekend there will be a downtown gold bow sale and lemonade stand as well as a car wash the following week.
All proceeds will benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand, St. Baldricks, and CURE. Tomorrow night's football game kicks off at 7:30 at Thomas County Central.
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