I received an invitation to a benefit, and the text revealed that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I started searching online for information and was taken to these shocking statistics.

One fourth of 15,780 children diagnosed with cancer – that’s 3,945 – will not survive.

I remember very vividly, after a few hours of fogginess and disbelief, asking my son’s pediatric oncologist, ‘Can he survive this?’

A question a mother never wants to ask, let alone hear the answer. He went over statistics and probabilities and treatment plans and possibilities. But he couldn’t answer my question, because he did not know.

We went in with the attitude that we would beat it. We would be among the three quarters of survivors. Our little man was already so tough, had survived so much, and certainly could survive the latest of so many terrifying diagnoses.

He fought for five long months. His smile never faded as his hair fell out and his legs became weak. He was a champion. He was a warrior. And now, he is my angel.

During this month of September I will be saying 3,945 prayers for those mommy’s and daddy’s whose babies fought so hard but could not beat the odds. I will go to bed every evening remembering my sweet little angel, who carries me now from Heaven as I carried him through those impossible months. And I will remember each of those 15,780 children and how each and every day they face the battle of their lives.