People ask me why am I running the St Jude half marathon to raise money. Below is an email I received from an awesome family I met through our church and it tells you why I think @StJude is so awesome. Brad, Feel free to share my response. Thank you for taking on this challenge to raise money for a Childrens Hospital that has changed the life and future of my child who was diagnosed at age 14 with a brain tumor. We are so thankful St. Jude is there for us. To this day they continue to learn from her, to support and love her, to giver her a hope and a future. Though she lives with multiple challenges because of the damage that the tumor and the surgery did, St Judes role in giving her radiation ended up pointing her toward a future we never imagined she would be capable of. What you see on their television advertisements is a mere sliver of what they actually do for each and every child they treat. It has been 10 years since we began going to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. From the beginning, they treated not only her tumor, but her entire physical and mental being. We had a school, physical and occupational and speech therapy, dental and eye care, psychological testing to track her cognitive and behavioral growth, free room, board and transportation. All at no charge to our family outside of what our insurance paid. There was never a co-pay. The list goes on. Even more astonishing is their willingness to support her outside of normal medical procedures. They have at our request, arranged her visits (that they pay for) so that she could be there for treatment at the same time when her friends and family were coming. They nurtured her need for connecting with other children in the same situation and offered her a scholarship to a special camp for brain tumor survivors that helped her know she was not alone in her struggles and that gave her life long friends. That camp alone was life changing. Through St. Judes close watch over Sierra and others, they recently began a new research project that has the potential to affect the ability of hundreds if not thousands of children worldwide to grow in cognitive ability beyond all expectations. It is an exciting and new direction made possible by St Judes agressive pursuit of cures and by your support. Sierra now goes once a year to St. Jude for followups. Because of the care she has received there, she continues to change and improve, giving her priceless benefits and giving St. Jude valuable data for current and future treatment of other children. She is now in college, on the Deans List and plans to go to Medical School She has a permanent, life threatening condition and many challenges, but she is a shining example of what can happen when this hospital has the funding and freedom to offer treatments, to conduct research without limitations and to save not only the lives of children, but to save their potential for bright futures. Sierra and I participated in a St Jude Marathon in 2004 when she was undergoing radiation. We walked with hundreds of supporters and my then 14-year-old daughter spent the entire walk thanking those who passed her for helping her and her friends have a future. She would tell you now what she told them then: Thank you for your support of St. Jude. I am a patient here, and one of the reasons you are out here on this cold day, raising money for St. Judes programs. My life has been changed and so have my friends. You are making a difference. I am alive because of you. I am getting my life back because of you. Brad you are making a difference. Brad you are saving lives with every step you take. Thank you for your dedication to this cause. Sierra and I thank all of you who support St. Jude with your money, your prayers, by donating platelets or blood at St. Judes blood center, by providing meals to families at Ronald McDonald, Grizzly House and Target House, by spreading the word of the wonderful job this facility does for children worldwide. Thank you for being a partner in research and treatment. I encourage you to exceed Brads expectations, blessing him and the cause close to his heart. We are honored to know him through his ministry at New Hope which is our home church when we travel from Oregon to Memphis. Please support his walk and help destroy the cancers that too often have taken our friends children from us. God Bless you all. Sharon Liddycoat
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:25:44 +0000
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