On Thursday, Sept. 1, Enterprise Mayor Kenneth Boswell signed a proclamation declaring September to be Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the city.
Boswell was joined by Brendon Franco Foundation founders Bonnie and Armand Franco to ask everyone to “Go Gold!” for September to raise awareness for the cause of childhood cancer research.
Gold is the color that reflects support for childhood cancer victims and research to help them, according to a press release from the city.
The release said Boswell signed the proclamation, saying the observance throughout the local community and the state gives all Alabamians the opportunity to remember the young lives taken too soon, to honor the young cancer survivors and to celebrate progress made in treatment and recovery.
The Franco family knows the heartache of losing a child to cancer. Their son, Brendon, died at the age of 12 of lung and liver cancer.
They started the foundation in his name in order to help parents like them become a “voice for the children” who cannot fight cancer alone.
Bonnie Franco said Brendon realized before his death that pediatric cancer victims receive less than four percent of all cancer funding for research, and he had already spearheaded the foundation concept hoping to raise funds so that other children would not suffer as he had.
“Ninety-six percent goes toward funding for adult cancer research,” Bonnie Franco said. “Even adults have a dismal cure rate when they are diagnosed with a Stage 3 or 4 cancer. Imagine how hopeless it is for a child and their family.”
Bonnie Franco said children cannot use adult cancer therapies because of their