The balloon release at "Super" Sam Santhuff's funeral on Wednesday at Memorial Gardens was a tribute to Sam and awareness event for childhood cancer as hundreds of yellow balloons floated into the clouds. September is childhood cancer awareness month.
In a caringbridge.org post, Sam's mother, Cassie Santhuff, wrote: "You see, Sam and I had talked about having an awareness event in September where we wanted to gather as many as possible and talk about the awful stats and need for more research for pediatric cancer ... Sadly, Sam had been too ill and we were never able to plan it ... I know he will love watching the balloons from above."
Those who could not attend the balloon release held their own and posted videos to Sam's support Facebook page, "SuperSam's Heroes." Balloons were released from schools, churches and homes across the state and beyond.
Donations for the Santhuff family will first go to pay expenses, then will go to the Super Sam Foundation established for research and continuing the battle against childhood cancer. Donations can be sent to First Christian Church, 6 E. Seventh Street in Fulton, with "Santhuff Family" or "Super Sam" written in the memo line.
The North Callaway-South Callaway football game on Friday will pay tribute to "Super" Sam and will also be a Pink Out game. Money raised will go to the Super Sam foundation, and there will be another balloon release during halftime. The game starts at 7 p.m. Friday at South Callaway High School located on 10135 State Highway C in Mokane.
Childhood cancer and research funding facts:
•Among U.S. children, about 10,450 will be diagnosed with cancer in 2014, according to the American Cancer Society.
•Over the past several decades, childhood cancer rates have been slightly increasing, according to the National Cancer Society.
•Federal funding for chilhood cancer research totals to four percent, according to the St. Baldricks foundation.
•According to the St. Baldricks Foundation, pharmaceutical companies attribute for 60 percent of all funding for drug development in adult cancers. That figure is "almost none" for childhood cancers "because childhood cancers are not profitable." The foundation's website also states that many private cancer organizations help fund patient support groups, transportation to treatments, places for families to stay during hospital visits, health information and education and programs to help patients feel and look better.
•Treatment advances over recent decades mean that now more than 80 percent of children with cancer survive five years or more, according to the National Cancer Society. That number was 60 percent in the mid-1970s.
•Survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for effects of cancer treatment later in life. The risks are dependent on several factors, but some common effects include heart problems, lung problems, slow or delayed growth and development, changes in sexual development and ability to have children, learning problems and increased risk of other cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. Three out of four childhood cancer survivors will have a long-term chronic illness and 40 percent will develop a severe illness and/or die from that disease, according to Flashes of Hope.
•Causes of most childhood cancers is unknown. An inherited mutation is the cause of about five percent of all childhood cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
•Childhood cancer is found in all ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes and geographic regions, according to Flashes of Hope.
•There were 380,000 survivors of cancer (ages 0-19) as of Jan. 1, 2010, according to the National Cancer Institute.