|
2002 Soap Box Archives A Visit To St. Jude's I am honored to serve on the Professional Advisory Board of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. I just returned from our annual meeting and, as always, I’m filled with hope and enthusiasm for the future of the treatment of catastrophic childhood diseases, which is what St. Jude’s is all about. St. Jude’s is a wondrous place where the children of the world come to be treated of terrible ailments such as cancer, leukemia, sickle cell anemia and a myriad of diseases and maladies. Sometimes there are rare diseases which are contracted by as few as twenty children. The drug companies are not interested in developing a cure for such a small market, but not so with the brilliant staff at St. Jude’s. They care for every child and work for their healing even if only a handful have the disease. Every child on the face of the earth is precious to them and no one is turned away because of their inability to pay for treatment. If you have money or insurance then you’re expected to pay for the services, but if you don’t, the child gets the treatment anyway. We found out about an exciting breakthrough at this year’s meeting. The research staff has developed, through computers and other state of the art technology, a way to tell if the chemotherapy treatments prescribed for the child will be the best for their well being. Now this may not seem like much to the casual observer but it means the world to the patients. Chemotherapy is devastating enough by itself without having painful side effects which can be avoided. Some of these children go through years of treatment, and anything which alleviates their suffering the least little bit is a welcome development to say the least. I could talk about the other exciting things we were told about like the gene research that is going on and making incredible headway or the new buildings which are going up on the campus. That is all wonderful, but what it all boils down to at St. Jude’s is the kids. Kids of every color, creed, religion and financial environment. They all come to Memphis for one reason - to get well, and that has been happening with increasing regularity at St. Jude’s over the past four decades. The cure rate has climbed from single digits at the beginning into the middle eighties in recent years. But the staff at St. Jude’s is not concerned with the eighty five percent who receive their healing. They have their sites set on the fifteen percent who did not get well, and are working nonstop to eradicate the diseases which plague the precious children of the world. It takes over six hundred thousand dollars a day to keep the doors of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital open. While I don’t usually use this column to solicit funds for any charity, I would like to encourage each and every one of you to consider giving whatever you can afford to St. Jude’s. The opportunity will present itself at a radiothon, a local fundraiser or some other function. There are many worthy charities which deserve your support, I realize that, but this one is for the children. What Do You Think? God
Bless America,
|
