#christophershaven

[chrisevansluv]

📸 Via Christophershaven IG

Link:

@christophershaven | Linktree

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[starlightcevans]

Hello everyone! My friend has helped to organize a fundraiser for Chris Evans charity Christopher's Haven. It's for his birthday in June.

Here is what my friend has posted:

"During these last months we worked to open a fundraiser for @christophershaven to celebrate the 41th birthday of @chrisevans

The CEvans nation is a big nation and I know we can make the difference for these #reallifesuperheroes

So... CEvans nation Assemble for the real-life superheroes

From an idea of @italychrisevans

Artwork courtesy of @zararosestark

Special thanks to @thegloriasophia to have open it for us"

If you can donate and help spread the word, that would be awesome 😊

Thank you!!! ♥️♥️

Chris Evans' 41st birthday!, organized by Gloria Sophia

What better way to celebrate Chris Evans 41st birthday than help the real-life superheroes … Gloria Sophia needs your support for Chris Eva

[gomustanggirl16]

Childhood Cancer: Be Their Voice

@evangerscares, I saw your post about the fundraising you guys are doing for Christopher's Haven and I wanted to post this. This is a speech I did for my high school speech class on Childhood Cancer. This is beyond personal for me. I'm glad you guys are doing this and you have no idea how much it will mean to these kids and their families, so I wanted to post a copy of my speech and maybe it can help people better understand what it's like being a kid with cancer. There are things in here that might be confusing, I was addressing my class who've known me since 7th grade so...But here it is:

Childhood Cancer: Be Their Voice

“What would happen if a gunman went into a school today and shot 46 kids? What if seven of them died? It would be all over the news, every channel. But because it’s cancer instead of a crazy shooter, you don’t hear much about it. Now, what would be the outcry if it happened every day? Welcome to the world of childhood cancer!” This is a quote I found that really helps to put Childhood cancer into perspective. This year over 15,000 kids under the age 19 will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. This year nearly 2,000 of them will die. Albeit rare, it is growing more and more common in the US and is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15. Why is it the leading cause of death for these kids? Why do you never hear about it?  I have spent over 40 hours and thirteen years of my life dealing with these questions. It is my desire that after this presentation you will be persuaded to support childhood cancer awareness.

I want you to take this time and immerse yourself in the world of a child suffering with cancer. During this speech I will take you through the main three stages of childhood cancer. Stage one: The Diagnoses, stage 2: the treatment, and stage three: the aftermath.

Stage one: The Diagnoses

To get to the first stage you need to be diagnosed. For adults it is typically very easy to diagnose cancer because you are regularly screened for it, but cancer in children is often missed or not diagnosed correctly. Most cancers in children are mistaken for different diseases. For me they thought I had Lyme’s disease. The average age of diagnoses for children is six years old, while the average age of diagnoses for an adult is sixty-seven. Cancer in children is totally different from cancer in adults and affects different parts of the body. The most common cancers in adults are: breast, skin, lung, and prostate. The most common cancer in kids is ALL, Brain and central nervous system, and Hodgkin Disease. Cancer in adults also has links to environmental and lifestyle risks, where childhood cancers have little to no link’s to the way you live or the environment you live in. Most childhood cancers are actually believed to have a genetic factor.

Stage 2: The Treatment

            Every year there are over 40,000 children being treated for childhood cancer in the U.S. Since cancer in children is different than cancer in adults the way it is treated is different, or at least that’s what you would think. For the most part, childhood cancers are treated with the same chemo drugs and radiation levels as adults. In the last twenty years the FDA has only approved two drugs made specifically for childhood cancer and over half of the cancer treatments currently being used are over twenty-five years old. You see these treatments are not how you say it…safe.

These treatments come with harsh realities and major side-affects which we will touch later, but let’s take a look at some of the different types of treatment used in childhood cancer. Chemo drugs are the biggest way of treating cancer in general. The following are only a handful of chemo drugs and their warnings. Doxorubicin this drug is common but is only sometimes used to treat cancer in adults but is more used for childhood cancer. When looking more into the drug I found this in with the use and warnings, in big bold letters it said: “should be used with extreme caution in CHILDREN; safety and effectiveness in children have not been confirmed.” Etoposide: “is not recommended for use in CHILDREN. Safety and effectiveness have not been confirmed.” For one of the drugs, dexamethasone, It is a steroid and yes I was on steroids to help my immune system. My mom has recounted all the times I would wake up in the middle of the night because I was starving. This drug causes you to gain a lot of weight.  

Another steroid that is now a commonly used for ALL is methotrexate. It is highly toxic go figure! This is used as an acid agent but has debilitating side-affects the most common being “chemo brain”. “Chemo brain” is just a fancy term for extreme forgetfulness. I asked Mrs. Smith about her treatment with Meth. She was prescribed it for her RA. She told me the same year she was on it was our tenth grade year. She said it affected her work and her personal life to the point where she told her doctor this needs to change. She said that was the main reason she left teaching. She also mentioned she has little memory of that year. As most of you know I do not remember anything before about the age of nine. This is most likely a result of the chemo and my own brain wanting to protect me from the horrors I faced. I would ask a question about twenty times because I had no clue I had asked it five seconds before. These drugs they are brutal and are just as, if not sometimes worse than the cancer itself. I can personally attest to these side-affects. Just imagen if it’s that bad for an adult, how bad is it for children taking these drugs. There are surgeries and spinal taps and so much pain and suffering. You are vomiting and passing out and being kept away from people because your immune system has been compromised and anything like the common cold can kill you. This disease takes everything away from you.

  So why do we have such drugs? This because of a lack of funding. You see each year the NCI designates a certain amount of money to be used as funding for all cancer research. Childhood cancer research only receives four percent of that money. As for the pharmacies who are the main source of research for new drugs they see childhood cancer as “non-profitable” and “risky”. NCI spends only $26.4 million on pediatric cancer trials while it spends $254 million on AIDS and $584 million on Breast cancer. Because of this researchers rely primarily on foundations and gifts from the public to help raise the money

They also come with a very expensive treatment bills. The first three weeks of my treatment cost over $115,000. Insurance does help yes, but when your treatment can last between three months to three years, the bills begin to pile up. My mom had to quit her job to stay with me and my dad was working three jobs. We had to declare bankruptcy because of the hospital bills. We just only got out of it maybe six years ago.

 Stage 3: The Aftermath

The day you hear the words of your cancer is gone is the best day you will ever have in your life. I remember the date it was November 8, 2004. After nearly three years it was gone. For many this day never comes. For the Bono family this day never came. Watching your child die, is something no parent should ever half to do.

Sadly even when the cancer is gone the damage is done. At least 2/3 of childhood cancer survivors suffer from long term side-affects. A long term side-affect is a side-effect of the treatment or the cancer itself. These side-effects can show up months to years after treatment ends. Some of the more immediate affects are: a loss of a limb/limbs, paralyze from the waist down to being completely paralyzed. Loss of mental stability, just to name a few. The others on the other hand the ones that take years to appear can be the worst ones.

Because 30 years ago children weren’t living past five years no one knew that these things could happen. Now that these kids are living longer many into their teen years they have become more and more prevalent. Some of these include: secondary cancers, infertility, growth problems, tooth decay, emotional issues, learning and memory problems, heart problems, lung, digestive. These issues can be deadly. And most likely will be deadly.

You see as mentioned earlier breast cancer gets the majority of the money, the majority of the fundraising. All year its breast cancer this, breast cancer that! I mean come on! September is CC month that is our month! Instead they take over. So I took a look at the survival rates for breast cancer and CC. Breast cancer has a ten year survival rate of 83%, a 15 year survival rate of 78% and a five year survival rate of 99%. CC has had an increase in five year survival rates over the last 40 years from 10%-nearly 90%, but for many CC’s the survival rate is much less. You see CC is made up of 12 different types of cancers and over 100 different sub-types. Breast is one type with only hand full of sub types. Also 35% of children diagnosed with CC will die within 30 years. About 17% within the 5 year survival rate will die. Those that survive the 5 year 18% will within 30 years. They also have an 8x greater mortality rate due to increased heart and liver disease and secondary cancers. In reality that’s less than a 55% overall survival rate. So tell me why we don’t have the funding and support we need?   

Watching your child die, is something no parent should ever half to do. What makes it worse is all these parents can do is pray and hope that these treatments work. Here are some ways you can show your support: Daisy Day’s, Relay for Life, RMH. You see it’s not just prayer and money we want. We want to know that were not forgotten about, that there are other that care about us that want to help us. They are kids. They have no idea what’s happening all they know is that their lives are being destroyed and ripped away from them. These kids grow up faster than they should have to. They suffer so much.

I talk about my cancer, I’ve shared my testimony with you all, but there are things you don’t know. Nicole is probably the only one to know everything. After my cancer was gone I was almost immediately diagnosed with PTSD. It’s grown easier to talk about, but bear with me. I can say things casually about my cancer. But I can’t see another child with cancer. I mean I can look at a photo, but not a video and certainly not in person. When I go to CHOP I see these kids but I can’t look at them. When I meet Brianna, I balled my eyes out. I may not remember it, but it’s as if I do. When Bro Jo showed that video in class my first though was I don’t think I can watch this but I made myself. I cried throughout that entire hour. And when it was over and Nicole asked if I was ok I broke. You all saw me I know you did. I tell myself that I don’t avoid hospitals and I don’t. But I can become a hypochondriac faster than you can blink. At least two months before my CHOP appointment my mom notices my anxiety levels rise. I avoid eye contact when discussing my cancer I hate therapists. I still get night terrors. They went away for a while but last year they came back I’ve told you about those they’re not as bad as the ones I used to get. Those it took me a while to get back to reality. I’m telling you this because I’m not the only survivor with this I am fighting constantly. So are they.

 In this presentation today I have taken you through only some of what a child fight cancer faces. I have shown you the diagnoses, the treatment, and how their future will be affected because of the cancer. How devastating the lack of funding and support really is. Walking away today I just ask you one simple question: If you don’t give them a voice, who will? You can no longer say “I didn’t know.”

It's long I know, but...we may survive, but that's the funny thing about surviving, your not living. They're two separate things. I told myself I would try to keep what I tell people on this cite limited, but if it helps than it's worth it. I was four years old. I've never been a normal kid. Every year I walk into the doctors and wait with baited breath for them to tell me it's back or that a side-effect has appeared. The fight never ends.

Cancer doesn't care if your black or white, American or Asian, gay or trans. It doesn't care. My last visit to the hospital I walked into the room to have my blood drawn and there was this little boy no more than five screaming saying this: "I don't want to anymore. No more blood draws, tell the doctor I don't want to anymore. Five years old. Right after that I had to go have my heart checked and the tech tells me she had a boy in here maybe four with his sister and he pointed at the ultrasound and said that's my sissy's heart. He could read the machine. It doesn't just effect those with cancer but everyone around them. No kid should know these things.

So thank you for doing this, for supporting these kids, for giving them a voice.

[chrisevansluv]

⌨ Chris via Twitter

[chrisevansluv]

I’ve just seen a post of all the photos from the Christopher’s Haven event and WHY IS CHRIS LITERALLY THE MOST HUGGABLE PERSON ALIVE I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

You're right and YOU SHOULD SAY IT

[chrisevansluv]

CHRIS' SMILE IN THAT PHOTO I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HE'S SO CUUUUUTE

I knoooow 🥺🥺

[chrisevansluv]

Chris founded Christopher’s Haven?

Nope

[chrisevansluv]

Is Guillermo not Chris’ bodyguard anymore? Shouldn’t he have been with Chris at the Christopher’s Haven event instead of Josh?

I don't think Chris needed a bodyguard to attend the CH celebration lol. I'd think Josh went there as his PA/friend/companion