I helped raise $ for St. Jude hospital!
I helped raise $ for St. Jude hospital!
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has been around much much longer than SJM.
I was one of thousands of kids who helped raise money to start St. Jude. In 1961 or '62, I collected money door-to-door, and it wasn't in my own neighborhood. I bicycled miles and miles from my home; today, when I drive that same route, I am stunned at how far I biked. I remember being extremely exhausted at that time. I was 11 at the time.
Here's what I found at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital website:
St. Jude History
In 1962, Danny Thomas, one of the biggest television stars of the 1950s, founded a hospital called St. Jude Children?s Research Hospital. He dreamed of the hospital one day finding a cure for deadly diseases that sometimes attack children, particularly a disease called acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Today, Danny?s daughter, Marlo Thomas, star of the television show That Girl, her brother Tony, sister Terre and thousands of volunteers around the world continue Danny's dream that ?no child should die in the dawn of life.?
At the time St. Jude opened, nearly every child discovered with ALL did not survive, and medical textbooks said there was no cure. But Danny knew that a cure could be found. Today, because of his vision and determination, the medical textbooks have been rewritten, and 85 percent of kids with ALL now beat the disease and go on to live healthy normal lives.
And St. Jude continues to research ALL and many other diseases so that one day, all children will have the same chance at growing up. St. Jude?s research has also helped make the overall survival rate for childhood cancer jump from less than 20 percent to more than 70 percent.
St. Jude has treated kids from all 50 states and more than 70 countries. And though it is named after St. Jude Thaddeus, the hospital is not affiliated with any religious organization and treats all children regardless of their race, gender, religious beliefs or their family?s ability to pay. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. As a non-profit institution, St. Jude relies on support from public contributions to provide cutting-edge medical care to kids fighting for their lives. You can help by participating in one of our many fund-raising programs.
