By Staff
Tracy B. Cieniewicz , Hartselle Enquirer
Josh Pohl, 7, of Hartselle is one of 12,000 children nationwide diagnosed with some form of cancer annually. Thirty-five percent of those children don't survive.
Josh is one of the lucky ones, though. More than two years after his battle began, Josh is in remission and his checkups at The University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology at Children's Hospital have decreased from a couple of times a month to once every four months.
"He's just doing great," his mother, Beverly Pohl, said. "He's growing so fast."
Josh's family attributes much of his ability to lead a normal childhood to the care and expert medical treatment he received at Children's Hospital.
That's why his family made a commitment nearly two years ago at the Morgan County License Department to purchase a special Curing Childhood Cancer car tag to help fund additional research for childhood cancer like Josh's.
The cost of each tag is $50 with $41.25 of each purchase going to The University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Children's Hospital, which treats over 95 percent of children with cancer in the state.
"Everyone at Children's Hospital was so good to Josh," Beverly said. "This is just a small way of saying thank you and making others aware of childhood cancer and how they can help fight it."
Making Miracles of Birmingham, sponsoring cancer research organization for the car tag, needed 1,000 commitments by July 31, 2004 to make the research fund generating tag a reality.
According to The Birmingham News, Curing Childhood Cancer collected 2,059 commitments by its deadline, the most commitments for a distinctive car tag since the process started in 1997.
The first Curing Childhood Cancer car tags were distributed March 1 and are now available statewide at county license departments.
Making Miracles founder Deidre Downs said 600-700 children from across Alabama are being treated for cancer at UAB Children's Hospital at any given time.
"More research is the single greatest way to beat cancer," Downs said. "It provides us with better ways to diagnose and treat it."
For more information on purchasing Curing Childhood Cancer tags, visit the Morgan County License Department or contact them at 351-4770 or 773-5924.