Fifteen-thousand three-hundred. That’s the approximate number of children diagnosed with cancer every year. 12% of those children do not survive. More likely than not, we all have been affected by cancer in some way; a family member, a friend, a friend of a friend. Too often, we hear of battles lost. We ask ourselves, “what could I possibly do?”
Here at Murray State, there is something you can do! An organization on campus called Up ‘til Dawn partners with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where children battle cancer and other life-threatening diseases. St. Jude’s goal is for every child to walk out of their doors cancer-free. Since they opened in 1962, the survival rate has increased to over 80%. That is all from the research done at their facilities funded by donations. Donations to St. Jude help fund research, but they also help the children directly. Families of patients do not pay for anything, including treatment, lodging, travel, or food. St. Jude’s believes a parent’s number one priority should be helping their child survive. Please join with thousands of other people in the nation to help defeat pediatric cancer once and for all. As St. Jude’s founder Danny Thomas once said, “no child should die in the dawn of life.”
(Image courtesy of the author)