With just 40 sleeps left to go until the end of Alba’s chemo treatments, I’ve been reflecting over the last couple of years of her fight against cancer.
“With awareness there is hope.
Spread the word.”
A question people have often asked me, and that I’ve many times asked myself, is why. Why Alba? Why my child? Now that I also have a second child, I can’t help but worry about how to prevent such an awful disease from being triggered. Alba recently made a wish (on a chicken wishbone!) to keep her sister healthy, because she never wants her to experience what she has gone through. Thankfully, although leukemia is a genetic condition, in most cases, such as the type that Alba has, it is not hereditary.
I was very careful with Alba as a baby. I was extremely sanitary, and due to our circumstances, she was barely around other children until she attended preschool at 18 months old.
A few months after Alba’s Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) diagnosis, research was published by Professor Mel Greaves of The Institute of Cancer Research, confirming the trigger factors for leukemia. Some children are predisposed to leukemia, however, only 1% go on to develop the disease. Surprisingly, there are more kids from advanced, affluent societies who develop ALL, and worryingly, the rate of children who are diagnosed is increasing at around 1% per year.
The professor confirms that a ‘lack of microbial exposure early in life resulting in immune system malfunction’ plays a factor in those kids that go on to develop ALL. In other words, not being exposed to enough common bugs in the first year of childhood. We have become so sanitary and cautious about germs around our little ones, that it actually can cause more harm than good.
The second trigger is an infection that causes the immune system to fail. If a child’s immune system isn’t properly primed by the harmless bugs in the first year of life, then a bad infection weakens the system enough to trigger the leukemia cells to grow.
With our newborn, Elizabeth, yes, I’ll be careful for the first couple of months while her immune system is still very vulnerable, but after that, I’ll let her ‘roll around in the mud’ like we did when I was a kid.
Although it awaits more substantiated evidence, another widely published link to all types of leukemia are chemicals and toxins.
You may know that I am a fierce advocate for reducing plastic pollution. Not only is plastic suffocating our oceans, and killing our marine life, but it is linked to all kinds of health problems in humans. Despite the fact that it’s still currently undergoing research, I’m convinced that our increasing addiction to cheap plastics, goes hand-in-hand, with the increasing rate of ALL diagnoses. Research already shows that styrene is very likely to be carcinogenic, with leukemia being the most prevalent form of cancer associated with exposure to styrene.
And what is styrene? Styrene is used in the manufacture of many plastics, including polystyrene aka styrofoam, often used in restaurants to package takeaway food. Hot foods and liquids actually start a partial breakdown of polystyrene, which means its toxins are leaked, and likely to be absorbed into our bloodstream and tissue. Hot chips with cancer anyone?
And for the smokers out there, styrene is one of the many nasty chemicals in your cigarettes. This is why it’s drummed into us to keep children away from second hand smoke.
So, going on the advice of the confirmed research, as well as following my instincts, I will be making sure Elizabeth mixes with other children this year, I will not be too fanatical about hygiene, and I will continue the fight against our growing use of nasty, harmful plastics and reduce my use of plastic in any way that I can.
Read more about Professor Greaves’ research:
https://health.10ztalk.com/2018/05/25/too-clean-could-be-a-trigger-for-childhood-acute-leukemia/
Follow my campaign, Keep Fin Alive, where we often share tips on how to reduce your use of plastic: www.keepfinalive.com
Being Brave 