September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and for the last several years, I have used it to fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.
This year, Relay FM (and a bunch of our friends) are raising money for St. Jude throughout the month of September, culminating in a six-hour live video podcast on the 20th. All month, we’ll be sharing varying aspects of the hospital’s important work in ridding the world of childhood cancer.
If you aren’t familiar with the work of St. Jude, it is neatly encompassed in the organization’s mission statement:
The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.
This mission is near and dear to many, many people around the world, but for some of us, it’s personal. Deeply personal.
A little over ten years ago, my wife and I's oldest son was diagnosed with a brain tumor at just six months of age. After surgery at our local children’s hospital he was admitted to St. Jude, undergoing 18 rounds of chemotherapy. This treatment stopped the cancer in its tracks, and while he will never quite be out of the woods, he leads a joyous life thanks to the researchers, security guards, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, janitors, chefs, physical therapists, doctors, audiologists, MRI technicians and everyone else who works for St. Jude.
The women and men of St. Jude have vowed to keep working until every child who is diagnosed with cancer survives it. The hospital’s founder believed that no child should die in the dawn of life, and everyone I have met wearing a St. Jude ID tag has it engraved on their hearts and minds. It shows: treatments created at St. Jude have pushed the overall cancer survival for kids rate from 20% to more than 80%.
That is amazing, and it’s only possible by those who give to St. Jude’s life-saving work, which reaches around the world, into countless communities, giving countless families hope on their darkest days.
The price for this hope? Nothing. No family is ever charged a dime by St. Jude; treatment, housing, travel and more are all paid for by the generosity of people like you.
Our goal this year is to raise $75,000 for the kids of St. Jude, and we would love you to join us this month in our campaign.
To make things a little more interesting, Myke and I will be co-hosting a six-hour video podcast from the St. Jude campus on Friday, September 20, from 4 to 10 PM Eastern on the Relay FM Twitch channel to raise money and share more of St. Jude’s work... all while talking about the tech news of the week. It should be a lot of fun, so stay tuned for more details.
In the meantime, learn more about St. Jude and click here to donate.
Yours, Stephen