My Most Important Blog

Do you have children or know someone who does?

I recently spent 4 days learning more about St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, including touring the actual hospital and listening to pateints and their parents tell their stories. It was my second visit, and I want to share with you a few things I have learned in the past few years.

Before I started working in country radio, I would see the television commercials of celebrities pleading for you to send your money to St. Jude. I never paid attention. I didn't know.

Then I found out exactly what they do. They're not a hospital in the traditional sense of the word. They are a RESEARCH hospital. Which means they have labs and research towers and they share everything they learn FREELY. With hospitals around the WORLD. Which means that while the actual hospital is in Memphis, the hospital in your area has access to the protocol developed at St. Jude. And children from across the world are also treated at St. Jude. One result of their research: when the doors to the hospital opened in 1962, the survival rate for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) was 4%. This fall it will rise to 90%. They are also a CHILDREN'S hospital, which means that while your child may be suffering from a catastrophic disease, they try to make the child's experience at the hospital as normal as they possibly can. They have Mardi Gras and Halloween parties. Doctors eat lunch with patients in the cafeteria. They make sure the family is not responsible for ONE SINGLE PENNY when it comes to the care of their child. Seriously. Not a penny. Whether they have insurance or not. If they do, insurance pays their part, and the rest is left to St. Jude. The daily cost to run St. Jude has risen to $1.2 million. Daily. This is so that parents don't have to worry about anything except making sure their child gets better. As one speaker this past weekend told us, St Jude gave him Daddy Time with his sick child. There is the Grizzlies House, The Target House, and the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, where families stay while the child is getting whatever treatment they need. Even when your child is sent home (wherever that might be), when they need to come back for their checkups, travel costs are paid by St. Jude. The parents just don't have to worry about money. Which, with the cost of healthcare today, is a HUGE deal. I even read a story about a family who had to be in Memphis because their son had a tumor. Even the community treated them like family. They would go out to dinner and have their meal paid for by an anonymous person. Just because.

In 1989, Randy Owen (lead singer of Alabama) got together with Danny Thomas (founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) and they came up with Country Cares. Every year, country radio stations across the nation hold radiothons, raising money for St. Jude. So far, we've raised over $250 million, but that's not enough. We're waiting for the day that we don't need to raise money anymore, because childhood cancer has been cured.

Please, if you would, contact your local country radio station (even if you don't listen to country) and try to find out when their radiothon is. Use this website for help. Just type in your city and state. Every single penny helps. If your local station doesn't do a radiothon, visit St Jude's website and donate. It's easy. Even if it was difficult, wouldn't you do it to save the life of a child?

Lastly, a thought crossed my mind this past weekend. Do you want to wait until your child or a child you know needs help from St. Jude, or would you rather know that if it ever happens to you, the money you've donated has already been put to good use and they'll be even more prepared to help your child survive?