At our first Know Cancer Community Awareness Fair, we partnered with the most informative and influential Cancer Organizations to heighten cancer awareness in Orlando…our home! The day was filled with live music, tasty treats, and raffle giveaways, all to raise money for the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute.  At the event, a young man named Grafton Roll approached us asking if he could read a speech that he wrote. His speech was originally done as a school assignment to honor Martin Luther King with a work inspired from King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.  Since his mother has battled cancer twice (Lymphoma), he chose to write his speech on the eradication of the disease. When Grafton delivered this speech at the event in front of hundreds of people…everyone stopped to listen.  Know Cancer thanks Grafton and his family for their commitment and support…and for allowing us to share his speech with our community. Without further a due…

I Have a Dream

I say to you today, my fellow race, that there is a problem.  This problem is as old as life itself.  This problem causes hundreds of thousands of deaths every year.  It crushes families and kills friends. This problem is the most horrific disease known to mankind.  This disease is cancer or the mutation of cells.  Cancer will destroy, weaken and send a family into poverty. Most cancers do not have an antidote or way to solve immediately by cure.  Often the healing process requires long term sessions of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments that can go on for six months or longer.  Bum Bum Bum. I have a dream that one day there will be a cure for all cancers so that no one will have to face the fact that they have cancer and have to observe the faces of friends and family transform from blissful to gloomy when given the news. I have a dream that parents and their offspring will stop bawling so they can stand up and walk through the searing flames to the soothing refreshing pool of a healthy nation. I have a dream that the families will stand up and take that first step to helping their son, daughter, wife or husband recover. I have a dream today. I have a dream that the cell will not mutate because they are too frightened of being vaccinated but if they do we shall be ready to pounce on them with the medicine. I have a dream that parents and kids will not and shall not be ensnarled in a hospital for weeks and months at a time. I too have hope that some will stand up and others will jump up and go past the desert of despair into the oasis of hope.  On that note, let the cure spread. Let the cure spread to the hot deserts of Africa and to the cool refreshing winds of Europe. Let the cure spread. Let the cure spread from China to India and all through Asia. Let the cure spread. Let the cure spread to every hospital and sick village in the world. I wait for this day with high hopes.  That cancer will be eradicated from this planet. This is my dream today.

Grafton is 13 years old and a 7th grader at Indian Trails Middle School in Winter Springs. He plays baritone in the school band and competes worldwide in the Pokemon Trading Card Game where he has been ranked as high as #1 overall out of 11,000. He has hopes of going into the medicine field when he gets older.  Even as a toddler…he once stated that "He wanted to make medicine from bug guts one day". We wish Grafton the best of luck and hope to hear back from him soon!