Cancer interrupted their school lives, but also set them on a mission

These Happy Golden Years. At 10, center, she is pictured in the hospital where she was treated for thyroid cancer. For Beck and her family, the Happy Golden Years image became emblematic of her life, before. At right, EJ Beck today is a 23-year-old medical student.'/>

Pediatric cancer survival rates are a crowning medical achievement. But the impact of missing school is a less-discussed side effect children then face.

(Image credit: Beck family; José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR)