Mr. Speaker, last September Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill to honour Canadian children fighting cancer, both the survivors and those who have lost their lives to this disease.
The event, which included lighting the Peace Tower with gold, happened because of two mothers whose children have cancer, Mrs. Jenny Doull and Mrs. Kari Simpson-Anderson.
Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death of Canadian children. Despite this fact, in the last six years the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has invested only 3.1% of its budget toward childhood cancer research. Only one drug, clofarabine, has been approved especially for use in treatment of childhood cancer in over 20 years, and over 50% of chemotherapies used today to treat childhood cancer were developed over 25 years ago.
This year in Canada, 1,500 children will be diagnosed with cancer. One in five of them will die.
As we celebrate St. Nicholas the patron saint of children, we ask the Canadian government to support this issue and to help all children, including those fighting cancer.