Nearly 16 years ago, my wife Merri and I sat in silence as we were told that our six-month old son likely had brain cancer. That Sunday afternoon changed our lives forever. Josiah underwent numerous operations, and then 18 rounds of chemotherapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In the years since, he has undergone countless blood tests, nearly two dozen MRIs1, and an untold number of physical, speech, and occupational therapy sessions.
Now Josiah is 16. This morning when he came into the kitchen, he was wearing one of the shirts we designed for Relay’s live show in London last summer.
Early on in our journey, I knew I wanted to find a way to give back to St. Jude. It’s important for me to say our work for the hospital is in no way my attempt to repay what the institution has given my family. Instead, we raise money and talk about St. Jude and volunteer and donate and more out of love and appreciation of the mission.
Many years ago, I started talking about St. Jude here on 512 Pixels, raising money for the hospital by linking to the page for our family’s team for the hospital’s annual marathon. In 2019, my efforts became much more official when Relay started raising money for St. Jude as a fundraising partner. That partnership was something new for St. Jude, but the team at ALSAC immediately got what we wanted to do, and have been amazing partners over the last six years.
Since 2019, the Relay audience has given more than $4 million to the life-saving work of St. Jude. That is an incredible amount of money, and I am truly staggered by the generosity of the community. That generosity has not gone unnoticed by ALSAC and St. Jude.
The St. Jude campus is an amazing place. Nestled on the edge of downtown Memphis, it’s an ever-growing, ever-changing set of pink stucco buildings connected by a maze of sidewalks, walkways, and — if you get lost in the basement as I once did in 2010 — a series of underground hallways. At St. Jude, patient care and research are two sides of the same coin. Huge research buildings are right next door to where kids are seen by their care teams, and communication flows in both directions. This is by design, with the belief that this collaboration leads to breakthroughs.
The system works. St. Jude has made remarkable progress across a huge range of challenges, and there are children all around the world who are alive today thanks to this work, including my son.
But kids don’t think about that sort of thing; their parents do. St. Jude is a place built for both. The hospital is brightly colored and fun, with spaces for creativity, joy, and rest. Kids can be kids at St. Jude, and parents can connect with each other and professionals to help sort through everything that comes with a pediatric cancer diagnosis. For example, families don’t have to worry about travel, thanks to housing provided by St. Jude, and the hospital has teachers on staff to help patients stay up to date with their education.
Around the hospital are numerous reminders of that worldwide support that makes all of this possible. Some have the names of individual donors, while others highlight the work of companies to raise money.
The generosity of the Relay community has now been recognized within the hospital, as part of a display near the cafeteria.
We saw it in person this week at the hospital:
St. Jude founder Danny Thomas once said that “no child should die in the dawn of life,” and St. Jude continues in its work to see that dream come true, thanks to everyone who helps keep its doors open.
I love that Relay’s name is on the Dream panel, because that is exactly what this is. To be able to give back to a place that means so much to me and my family is incredible, and the success we have had in doing so is thanks to this amazing community that tunes into Relay shows each week. Thank you for making this possible, and thank you for continuing to support St. Jude.
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Including one just a couple of days ago that looked great! ↩︎
