MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Memphis is home to many things—Graceland, Beale Street, the Pyramid—and in 1962, it was also home to a small research hospital.
Now, that hospital has grown into St. Jude’s, which has pushed the survival rate from 20% to 80% for childhood cancer. It all began with entertainer Danny Thomas taking on something that was deemed incurable six decades ago.
The hospital helps children like Yara, who are getting better with St. Jude’s care.
“The gains that they’re making at St. Jude—they don’t stay in Memphis,” Brittany, Yara’s mom, said. “If you have this disease or genetic disorder…if your child is sick in St. Louis or sick in Memphis, St. Jude is going to do anything they can to help that child.”
Yara was diagnosed with a genetic mutation that keeps her bone marrow from producing normally. Because of St. Jude, her family will never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing, or food.
“For us to be able to come into St. Jude and not have to worry about those things at all—it is just a blessing,” Brittany said.
“I love to go there. I asked my dad if I can go back to the hospital and he said, ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘Because it’s fun,” Yara said.
FOX 2 and KPLR 11’s partnership with St. Jude has brought in more than $12.5 million to the hospital. Countless children have benefitted from the discoveries shared with doctors around the world.
“I had a very rare kind of cancer called Myxoid angioblastoma which was tumors inside blood vessels in the bone,” Bess Atkinson, legal analyst with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “I had over 30 tumors all over my body. I’m one of ten cases all over the world.”
St. Jude’s saved Atkinson’s life.
“Most of my adolescent years from 11 to 18, I was coming here for treatment. This was my second home,” Atkinson said. “When I was finished and done with treatment, I would get homesick for St. Jude. That’s kind of what brought me back here, because I was homesick.”
Washington University graduate Eliza Hendrix is an occupational therapist working on this ever-growing campus.
“I was able to think big on where I wanted to go and had the option to think about a rotation in Memphis, so it really worked out,” Hendrix said. “The work I do every day is really made possible by the donations and resources we have access to, to try different strategies with our patients undergoing challenging issues and deficits because of the treatment and diagnosis.”
Behind the scenes, patients, families, and medical students are completing clinicals and doing research. Their medical breakthroughs and discoveries are helping children, like Yara, grow up.
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