How Danny Thomas’ Dream Saved My Daughter’s Life

September is childhood cancer awareness month. So I’m dusting off a few blog posts I’ve shared over the years, polishing them up, and resharing our St. Jude Children’s Hospital story.

September may be the month of childhood cancer awareness, where we all wear our yellow cancer ribbons, drop a few extra coins in the collection tins at registers, and read inspirational stories by survivors… but for my family every day is a day worth remembering the children who fight and the people who fight for them.

Whenever I am at St Jude Children’s Hospital I am surrounded by families fighting for life. Some will win, some won’t.

On June 22, 2012, I had the privilege of being present as the hospital celebrated their 50 year anniversary. St. Jude in Memphis, TN has meant everything to us in the past 11 years. It often feels more like home then El Paso, Texas where we live. We’ve learned valuable lessons and made many memories in her halls. St. Jude has taught us that cancer is beatable, life is precious, and one man’s promise and vision can truly change the world.

Danny Thomas, the founder of St Jude Children’s Hospital, made a pledge early in his entertaining career to build a shrine to St Jude. That promise became a vision of hope.

“Danny told his close friend and mentor, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, about his pledge to build a shrine to the saint. During their conversation, an idea began to take shape. The shrine would be a hospital for needy children, a place where they would be cared for regardless of race, religion or ability to pay - a hospital where no suffering child would be turned away. ” (from http://www.stjude.tv/danny_thomas_story.cfm)

Because of this vision over 50 years ago and Danny Thomas’ ability to see a dream through to reality, my baby and countless more are alive today!

Cancer is ugly. It is painful and it is cruel. It rips families apart, destroys bodies, takes parents from children and ends lives before they begin. It leaves one hopeless and alone.

In 2012, as I left St Jude I was walking into final preparations for Ft Bliss’s Relay for Life. It would be our family’s second year to attend. The year before Katie was asked to be the grand marshal of the event.

I was hesitant at first. I felt like our lives were already inundated with cancer and I wasn’t interested in diving in deeper.

I was wrong. Instead of the pain I thought it would bring, the night brough healing. Relay for Life empowered Katie and our family.

The theme for 2012 was “Let’s Face Reality.” At first, when I heard, I was mortified.

Reality! Face Reality! Who wants to face reality in the darkness of diagnoses and looming death? I walk through the halls of St. Jude in a daze trying my best to forget reality. Yes, St. Jude Children’s brings hope to so many. Yes, the journey brings life lessons you would never give back. Yet, the pain our children face I would avoid at all costs. Reality hurts.

The last thing when facing cancer that I wanted to think of was reality.

A kind guided word from a friend as well as the patient created art displayed on the walls of St Jude reminded me of truth.

 

Reality is that miracles do happen.

Reality is that my daughter should be dead and she isn’t.

Reality is that we had just passed the 5-year cancer free mark and in 2012 for the first time she could take on the phrase survivor.

Reality is the journey has blessed our family in ways words can not convey.

As painful of an experience as my daughter’s cancer, the journey brought joy and Christ showed us His loving kindness through the pain. But had he chosen to not heal her body, it still would not have been the end.

Katie’s cancer was painful for the entire family and friends. The journey brought with it immense joy and tighter bonds. It introduced us to tiny heroes fighting for every breath, to great men and women, parents, doctors, and dreamers like Danny Thomas who choose hope over and over again. It showed us that Christ shows up in the darkest moments and points a way forward.

Thank you Relay for making me face reality head-on in 2012. Thank you Danny Thomas for giving my family more time with our precious Katie all because you dreamed the impossible. Thank you to every person who is in this fight and to every friend who has walked beside us over the last 12 years and just showed up. And thank you St. Jude, the saint of hopeless causes, for inspiring one man to dream the impossible.

This blog post has been rewritten from its original version first published July 2012.