MEMPHIS, Tenn. — St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is known worldwide for its efforts to not just treat pediatric cancer, but cure it.
However, I think one thing that was telling during our whirlwind of a morning and afternoon on the Memphis, Tennessee campus, on March 28 was hearing a former patient who was playing the role of tour guide that day tell us of the COVID research happening there during the pandemic.
She confirmed when asked that it wasn’t something that got a lot of media attention, but that it was known within the throws of this institution.
She told of getting phone calls from her parents who were unsure if they should get the vaccination. She said she assured them with 100% confidence that if the doctors and researchers at St. Jude trusted it, then they should too because ultimately, they were the ones who extended her life.
St. Jude isn’t just about pediatric cancer. It’s about disease, solving disease and then curing disease.
We were introduced to a mom whose son, Caleb, after just nine months of life exhibited signs that something wasn’t right.
So much so, the specialists and doctors encouraged the young couple from Mississippi to make the short drive to Memphis and seek the help of the St. Jude team.
Caleb is 23 now and though mom said he’s not perfect, she said he has taught her more about life and strength than she could ever show him.
There are stories of how researchers and doctors found their “why.”
One of them shared with us the story of a sick grandmother battling cancer and how impactful the treatment she received was on her father. So much so, he looked at his young daughter and told her that if she wanted to help people when she grew up, to go and be an oncologist.
She is now a mother of three as well as a lead researcher on liver sarcomas. She thinks about her own kids with the care she shares and the hope she instills, and that she and her team will do whatever it takes to make the families that visit St. Jude whole again.
Everywhere you look on the campus there is symbolism. The logo shows a child who might be praying, talking or reflecting placed on buildings, doors and sidewalks.
There are more than 100 flags hanging from the atrium of the Danny Thomas Research Center, each of them representing the country from which its doctors hail.
But there is life outside these walls and this campus, too, and St. Jude is sensitive to what’s happening in the world, making sure that the Russian and Ukraine flags are separated.
It's something that might give members of their team stress or pause, but always knowing that they play for the name on the front of the jersey.
Money is what makes the world go around and research isn’t free. But when you ask one of these doctors about never hearing “no” when they have an idea or a theory, they are filled with gratitude and are not oblivious to it. They say it’s the reason they’re here.
They don’t have the long grant writing and waiting process that so many others do. They say they believe in the mission and they know people do too because they see it every day.
Danny Thomas was an actor and that role gave him access to a lot of people.
A lot of those people saw worth in his dream, decades ago, to build a children’s hospital. Well, that hospital has become so much more and it continues to grow, in not only its scope and its reach, but in its drive and its beauty in all that it is and what it does.