Following our discussions, the Minister of Research, the members of parliament and the senators made commitments: to increase the fund dedicated to research on pediatric cancers to €20 million/year from 2026, to debate in the Senate (with a view to effective implementation) the bill proposed by Vincent Thiébaut aimed at better supporting families of sick children by the end of February, and finally to debate the bill proposed by Marie Récalde (after a missed appointment on December 11) which aims to promote the development of start-ups for drugs against cancers and rare diseases in children.
During this Christmas holiday period, too many families find themselves in disarray, even despair, upon receiving the news of a child's cancer or serious illness. Our association is working tirelessly, through the donations it receives, to support several research teams, improve comfort in hospitals, and provide financial assistance to hundreds of families forced to stop working to care for their child. But the goodwill and energy of all the associations fighting childhood cancer are not enough: the government must play its part, and that is the very purpose of our efforts.
In recent years, several of these efforts have borne fruit, sometimes incompletely. You can find
the main points of our progress at this link .
Three major problems remain to be solved:
- The annual funding allocated to pediatric cancer research At €5 million per year, this fund, managed by the National Cancer Institute, only supports a portion of research projects. The €5 million allocated annually to pediatric cancer research, supplemented by an additional €15 million for 2025 solely for clinical research, demonstrates both its importance and its inadequacy. Researchers and physicians need sufficient resources, both to increase the number of patients and improve the quality of care, and to better prevent these diseases. Following our advocacy efforts, during the Senate debates on the 2026 Finance Bill, the Minister of Research, Philippe Baptiste, pledged that €20 million per year would be allocated to these missions, with €10 million for basic pediatric oncology research and €10 million for clinical research.
Two amendments were adopted by the senators to secure this commitment from the Minister. We hope that this oral commitment from the minister will be followed by effects from 2026 and that we can be involved, with our association and the Growing Up Without Cancer Federation, in the use of these resources by the INCa.
- Establish a €70 million/year investment fund to foster the development of pediatric drug startups by supporting the bill introduced by Marie Récalde . It is co-signed by members of parliament from across the political spectrum (Socialist Party, Greens, Horizons, etc.), which is encouraging. Its passage in the National Assembly in the fall of 2025 would make France the most attractive country in Europe for developing treatments for sick children (cancers and serious illnesses), with an impact on adults as well, as researchers and doctors emphasized during the symposium. This is driven by both humanitarian and economic considerations: the results of our brilliant researchers' work must be utilized! Unfortunately, it was only debated for four minutes on December 11th. With the support of associations and many citizens, we have mobilized members of parliament for a new debate, this time a priority, at the beginning of 2026.
An opinion piece was published in the daily newspaper La Croix.
Finally, thebill introduced by Vincent Thiébaut , aimed at improving the protection and support of parents of children with cancer, serious illness, or disability, must be implemented . Adopted unanimously in its first reading by the National Assembly on December 3, 2024, it is still awaiting debate in the Senate for its implementation, but the chairman of the Senate's Social Affairs Committee has committed to a debate no later than February 22, 2026. Social workers, families, and associations have reiterated that the planned measures (including zero out-of-pocket costs for children with disabilities, housing assistance for families living far from the hospital, and reducing the processing time for the AEEH allowance to two months) are highly anticipated in order to combat inequalities in access to healthcare.
We are on the verge of making major progress, thanks to the groundwork (and 100% volunteer work) we are doing with Eva for Life and our colleagues at Growing Up Without Cancer. But we remain vigilant, because until progress is fully established and implemented, nothing is guaranteed for us. You can count on us to keep you informed in a serious manner—neither self-congratulatory nor sensationalist. With one single objective: to protect the children and families affected.
