Year-long effort by ‘Cayce Cancer Crew’ benefits St. Jude

by Barbara Atwill
CHECK PRESENTATION – Members of Cayce Cancer Crew traveled to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis Sept. 12 to present a check for $8,000 from the fundraising over the past year. The group sponsored a Spaghetti Luncheon, Bunco games, a Fish Fry, and memorials given. Making the trip, from left, standing in front of the St. Jude Thaddeus, Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes, are Jamie Maxwell, Barbara Atwill, Judy Wilson, Ruth Ann Graham, Judith Wolfgang, Larry Gardner, Tracy Campbell, Suzanne Hurley, Trina Campbell, Scarlett Bennett, Michael Sheehan, and Pastor James Wolfgang. (Photo submitted)
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Cayce Cancer Crew members raise funds throughout the year to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

On Sept. 12, team members including Larry Gardner, Michael Sheehan, Ruth Ann Graham, Suzanne Hurley, Judith Wolfgang, Jim Wolfgang, Judy Wilson, Tracy Campbell, Trina Campbell, Scarlett Bennett, Jamie Maxwell, and I, traveled to St. Jude for a tour of their facility.

The tour started in the Danny Thomas/ALSAC (American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities) Pavilion. Inside the architecturally unique building is memorabilia of the late entertainer Danny Thomas, founder of St. Jude, who dreamed that “no child should die in the dawn of life”. This building is maintained by the Thomas family today.

The Pavilion is dedicated to Thomas’ life as a humanitarian, highlighting the awards and honors he received for his work on behalf of the world’s children. Thomas’ Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress is also on display.

The Pavilion emits a star-like shape with five alcoves surrounding the rotunda. Inside the dome, marble-sheathed columns support a cupola, arched panels, calligraphically inscribed in Arabic and translated in English, sum up the founder and hospital’s mission: “He who denies his heritage has no heritage”, “No child should die in the dawn of life”, and “Those who work for the good are as those who do the good”.

The Thomas family and members of the ALSAC/St. Jude Boards of Directors and Governors, the governing body of St. Jude and ALSAC raised funds to build the Pavilion, open 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., seven days a week, including holidays.

Cayce Cancer Crew members divided into two groups at that time, to tour the hospital.

St. Jude was opened in 1962 by Danny Thomas, a struggling entertainer. His wife, Rose Marie Thomas, was pregnant with Marlo, due any day and they only had $10 in the bank. Thomas was worried they wouldn’t be able to be in the hospital when Rose Marie was to give birth to Marlo.

Thomas went to church and prayed to St. Jude Thaddeus, Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes, gave $7 of the $10 he had to the donation basket and said, “If you help me find my way, I will build you a shrine.”

In the following years Thomas was very successful, with a radio and television show, and decided to keep true to his promise. He thought “What is the most hopeless cause right now?” and it was childhood cancer, the most common form, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and still is today. The survival rate was 4% and many children were not treated.

Thomas located St. Jude in Memphis and said he would treat children regardless of ability to pay, race, creed, or religion. People in the community rallied around him and other immigrants supported and donated those first dollars needed to break ground on the site where St. Jude would become.

No family receives a bill from St. Jude for anything.

A statue of St. Jude Thaddeus, donated by the Thomas family, stands in front of the hospital and the day it was unveiled, a little blind boy named Billy Johnson, only had 75¢ and said, “Mr. Thomas, I want to help the sick kids of St. Jude.”

Danny Thomas was so moved by the gesture that he took the 75¢ and it is still inside the statue. St. Jude had Billy Johnson flown to the hospital in observance of the 50th anniversary.

The first stop of the tour was the registration area for all patients and family, where families receive wrist bands to identify patients, diagnosis, doctor, nurse, and social worker.

All the tables in the hospital are constructed low, because St. Jude wants the child to be comfortable by eye-to-eye contact with the patient. Registration is open 24/7, so if a patient comes at 3 a.m., someone is always here to greet them.

This is also when the families learn of the housing arrangements at St. Jude, which includes three different housing facilities.

One is the Tri Delta Place, a short term facility for one to seven days and donated by the Tri Deltas.

The next housing facility is the Ronald McDonald House, solely dedicated to St. Jude.

The third facility, the Target House, long term for families that may be there from three months until how long it takes for treatment. Each apartment has two bedrooms. Target provides them with a grocery card, and all is free to the families.

The next stop was the South ACU Building, which hosts the C-Clinic, H-Clinic, and the Blood donor center. One of two chapels is also located in this building, with the other across the way in the Pavilion.

St. Jude thinks of everything, including spiritual needs, with five chaplains to provide free counseling.

The H-Clinic takes care of all blood disorders.

The C-Clinic houses 17 different clinics to help tend to patients as a whole, where there are dentists, ear, nose and throat doctors, and other providers.

The Blood Center is for collecting blood with the Blood Center taking care of approximately 50% of the blood products, saving the hospital over $2 million a year.

Murals painted on the walls, in the different seasons, depict children featured with an eye patch, head scarf, and wheelchair, to give the patients a sense of normalcy.

The next stop was the Memorial Wall on one of the original wall foundations of the hospital. Names of supporters and those making donations are on the wall. Some of the names on the wall include Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley. Thomas went to those now on the wall and said, “I have an idea and I want to open up a hospital. I know you are rich and I need some money. I want to put the hospital in the south, in Memphis, Tenn., where the city is segregated and patients are not being seen because of the color of their skin, and their inability to pay.”

According to a newspaper account, a young boy in Mississippi was run over by a car and because he was African-American he could not receive treatment in any hospital in the Mississippi area. He passed away.

Thomas kept that newspaper on him until the day he passed away, as a motivation to go to his friends and say ‘I need you to invest in this idea’.

Thomas never graduated from high school or went to college, and had no medical background.

Thomas thought the hospital would take about $30,000 a day to operate in the beginning. It now takes $2.8 million a day to operate. The average donation now received is a little over $43. Thomas had been known to say ‘I would rather receive $1 from one million people than $1 million from one person’.

The hospital is licensed in 44 different states so that when a patient receives medicine and things from the hospital, those items can be shipped to where they live at no cost to the family.

Between St. Jude and ALSAC there are about 4,500 people employed. ALSAC alone is about 1,500.

The Rehab and Social Work area treats the family who may have lost a limb or sight, and helps the families adjust to these changes. A patient with three different types of cancer set a goal of walking the distance of a marathon. She measured the floor she was on and 11 laps equaled one mile and she completed a full marathon equal to 26 miles.

Social work also takes care to be mindful of siblings. It can be difficult that the patient is getting so much attention, negative or positive. St. Jude recognizes that and take the time that not only the parent but the sibling knows what is going on. St. Jude has a sibling’s day where the day is all about them, not the patient, so the siblings know they are cared for also.

Aniko was the guide leading the local group. She is from Dyersburg, Tenn. “Aniko” is a Hungarian name.

Her older cousin was a patient at St. Jude and the doctor who treated him was Hungarian, and Aniko’s grandmother named her after the doctor, who still works at St. Jude today.

Editorial cartoons on display, were donated by the Thomas’ family, when he passed away in 1991.

Thomas had three children, Marlo, Terry, and Tony, all of whom are big supporters of St. Jude.

A bronze statue of Thomas is in the Danny Thomas Research Center, believed to bring good luck if his nose is rubbed. The doctors and nurses rub his nose each morning when they arrive at the hospital.

There are about 182 different labs on campus, and donated by First Lady Barbara Bush.

Bush’s daughter, at the age of three, was diagnosed with ALL. Unfortunately, she passed away. Back in that time there was a 4% survival rate. Because of research and things done on campus the hospital survival rate is at 94%.

The next stop was the Kay Café, sponsored by Kay Jewelers.

It was important to Thomas that everyone eat together.

At St. Jude, everyone eats together, doctors, nurses, staff, patients, families, and visitors.

There 16 different food concepts in the cafeteria and a 5-Star chef. It is important, at St. Jude, the patients get whatever they want, because of treatment, they may have an appetite for something.

One patient had a taste for pickles because of her treatment, and the hospital made sure she had pickles, pickle juice, and pickle pops.

St. Jude has a “Sainted Garden” where they grow fruits and vegetables to use in the cafeteria. The garden is maintained by volunteers, St. Jude and ALSAC staff.

Aniko, the tour guide, spoke about another patient, Caleb from the Bahamas, and the only thing he wanted was his mom’s tuna salad. The doctors and nurses brought him some tuna salad, but he hated it, saying it was disgusting. The chef contacted the mom and got the recipe for the patient.

Most of the time volunteers lead the tours, visit the patient rooms providing coloring books and beverages. Volunteers also help with the Memphis Marathon.

The group visited the ABCs of Cancer Wall, where the Child Life Specialists do their best to ease anxiety for patients by providing different activities and events to get involved in. It is 26 different perspectives of what cancer is to the patients.

The group then passed through a hall with portraits of employees of St. Jude or ALSAC, who were former patients holding a picture of themselves from when they were a patient.

A statue outside the hospital symbolizes the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. St. Jude is not just about the treatment, it is also about the research. The genome project is about identifying what causes the life threatening illnesses in the patients.

In the Chili Care Center and Kay Research Care Center, the reception desk has “welcome” written in several different languages and patients are welcomed in their native language. There is a blue phone that will translate what is being said in their language, with 100 different languages available to patients.

Diagnostic imaging, radiation, oncology, and bone marrow transplant programs are located in the Chili Care and Kay Research Care Center.

The bone marrow transplant program has a proton beam on campus and deep underground. There are only two in the country, with the other in Cincinnati.

The one at St. Jude is the only proton beam designated solely for childhood cancer and is about the size of the tip of a finger and targets the cancer or tumor directly, instead of all the surrounding healthy tissue, as healthy tissue can be damaged with radiation.

Looking up the group was able to see the Sequin Wall, constructed where patients would look out the windows on the top floors and see an ugly eyesore. St. Jude contacted a country that made a garden of sequins, which were placed by hand. The shimmering is not caused by wind, but by heat.

When patients go into the diagnostic area, there are sensors which allow the patient to decide what color they would like the room to be. The third floor is an African Safari theme. There is also an Ocean floor and a Space floor.

There are 80 inpatient rooms, with 77 occupied, most are outpatients.

It is important to St. Jude to be with family, not in the hospital, unless the patient is in the critical care unit.

The last stop was the Teen Art Gallery, another project from the Child Life Department, where an art show is presented every year and some are selected to be featured on the wall.

Larry Gardner said, “I really appreciate how nice everybody has been at St. Jude’s.”

Our tour guide replied, “We want to thank you guys. I mean $8,000 is amazing.”

Gardner stated, “That amount was for one year, and we fundraise year after year. We have raised over the period of six years, for cancer research, over $34,000, by having a spaghetti luncheon, Bunco games, a fish fry and memorials when someone passes.”

Gardner asked, “What is the age in which you are too old to come to St. Jude?”

The guide answered, “Once you are a St. Jude patient, you are always a St. Jude patient. In most cases it is 18, we do have a few patients over 18 however.”