Danny Thomas had struggled to find a job after graduating from the University of Toledo, and the constant stress of his baby on the way did not help the situation. During this time of hardship, Danny visited a nearby church in Detriot, placing his last $7 in the church’s collection box. Realizing he’d just donated the last dollars that he had, he prayed for a way to get more money and pay his baby’s debts to the hospital. These prayers seem to have paid off as the following day, he got a job with high pay. Later in his life, Thomas often prayed to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, asking St. Jude to “help me find my way in life, and I will build you a shrine.” As you can probably assume, this shrine became known at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is a non-profit hospital in Memphis, Tennessee that has been helping families since 1962. St. Jude focuses on both the prevention and treatment of different types of cancer and disease that children are commonly diagnosed with. The key detail that sets this chain of hospitals apart from others is that it “costs about US $2.8 million a day to run, but patients are not charged for their care.” These few million dollars tally to a total of $1.4 billion a year to keep St. Jude running. Since St. Jude does not charge their patients, they run almost solely on generous donations from individuals. The link to donate to St. Jude Hospital is included at the bottom of the article!

St. Jude Hospital has made some breakthrough discoveries in the hospital industry such as one of their most recent discoveries concerning the antibodies of the influenza virus and how they can worsen alternate diseases and a person’s autoimmunity. St. Jude has also developed several recent groundbreaking strategies for how to overcome different types of cancer such as trying to overcome leukemia using CAR T cells. 

Overall, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has been a huge asset to the cancer-tackling community and has helped save thousands of children’s lives that would have otherwise been taken over by disease. 

If you are thinking about donating to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, check out their donation page. Every dollar goes a long way. Click here to donate!

Click here for a virtual tour of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee!