The Colorado Childhood Cancer Awareness license plate is a Colorado Group Special license plate that creates awareness for childhood cancer and shows kids, teens, and young adults battling cancer that they are not alone in their fight. Proceeds from the license plate will benefit two local nonprofit organizations that are helping in the fight against kids’ cancer: The Morgan Adams Foundation and Cops Fighting Cancer.
Gabriel Santistevan is a 20-year-old brain tumor survivor from Aurora, Colorado.
When Gabe was just nine years old, he was diagnosed with Stage IV Medulloblastoma that had already spread to his spine. Gabe had emergency surgery to relieve the pressure in his brain and remove a portion of the tumor for biopsy. He then endured radiation every day for 6 weeks, as well as 6 months of high-dose chemotherapy. Although Gabe has no evidence of cancer in his body, he will deal with side effects from his treatment for the rest of his life and will have scans every few months to confirm the cancer has not returned.
During his treatment, Gabe asked his mother, “Why don’t kids have special plates with the gold ribbon so people know about us? Can we make license plates for all the kids who have cancer?”
Of course, his mother promised him she would do everything she could to create a license plate to promote childhood cancer awareness and together, they have done just that! After more than a year of petitions, legislative hearings, and votes by the Colorado Senate and House of Representatives, Governor John Hickenlooper signed Colorado HB18-1255 into law on May 22, 2018!
Gabe completed his treatment in June of 2014 and is CANCER-FREE! He is thrilled to see his vision become a reality and he is so grateful to everyone who gets a license plate and shows kids and young adults battling cancer that they are not alone or ignored.
When the Colorado Childhood Cancer Awareness license plate was established in 2018, 43 children were diagnosed with cancer every day in the United States. Today, that number is up to 47 kids each day. Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for kids under age 20 in the U.S. Read more childhood cancer statistics.
