And every other form of social media. I have a bone to pick with you. I spend maybe just a tad too much time on social media and I have to say if I didn’t know any better I would think September is just a normal month in social media. I see the same political angst, some meals, snap chat pictures, etc. I love seeing the photos of your babies, but I do wish I was seeing a little bit more this month.

Have you ever loved a child? Then you should care that it’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. You should care that childhood cancer research gets less than 4% of federal funding. You should know that childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the U.S. And that one in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 20 years old.

Are you a woman? Have you ever loved a woman? Then you should care that it’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. You should know that ovarian cancer is often called the whisper killer and that knowing the symptoms can and will save lives. It is often discovered in late stages because the symptoms can hide in plain site. So please commit these to memory:

• Increased abdominal size / persistent bloating (not bloating that comes and goes)
• Difficulty eating/feeling full quickly
• Abdominal or pelvic pain
• Needing to pass urine more urgently or more frequently

Are you a human being? Have you or someone you loved ever had pneumonia, strep throat, surgery, kidney stones? Then you should care that it is Sepsis Awareness Month. In fact, today is World Sepsis Day. Friends, can you look at the date? It’s September 13th. We are not even halfway through the month and as I type this, 633,885 people have been affected by sepsis worldwide. As I write this, a good friend’s mother is in the hospital fighting this. So please know these facts:

•    Globally, an estimated 20 million to 30 million cases of sepsis occur each year.
•    Sepsis is the primary cause of death from infection.
•    Sepsis causes more deaths than prostate cancer, breast cancer, and HIV/AIDS combined.
•    In the developing world, sepsis accounts for 60 to 80 percent of lost lives per year in childhood.
•    Patients surviving sepsis have twice the risk of death in the subsequent five years compared with hospitalized controls.
•    Rapid intervention for sepsis can halve the risk of dying.
•    Hospitalizations for sepsis have more than doubled over the last 10 years.
•    The incidence of sepsis developing after surgery tripled from 1997 to 2006.
•    In 2008, hospitalizations for sepsis in the United States cost an estimated $14.6 billion.
•    Each year from 1997 through 2008, the inflation-adjusted total costs for treating patients hospitalized for sepsis increased 11.9 percent on average.

And please know these symptoms:

Will you do me a favor? Will you help me spread awareness? Will you share this? I pray you will.

Love,

Audrey

#PSdontusetampons

#ifyoudomakesuretheyrecotton