Did you know that treatments at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have pushed the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since it opened in 1962?
As co-host of Midlife Road Trip, it breaks my heart to think that children with certain diseases, including cancer, may have experienced their midlife before they even started kindergarten. When I was a kid, my cousin, Terri, died of a rare bone cancer when we were both only 10 years old. Her death hit me and my family hard.
The story of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital resonates with me because they are working rigorously so that kids like Terri won’t leave us before their time. And to me, the most impressive part of their mission is that all St. Jude does for its patients is free. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
As a professional traveler, I am super excited about Expedia’s partnership with St. Jude this year. They are raising awareness and funds for the care and research that have helped save so many young lives. And they are enabling you and me to make an impact with zero dollars out of pocket.
On my most recent trip to Memphis, I was fortunate enough to tour St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and was blown away by these facts:
• For more than 50 years, St. Jude has taken on many of the most difficult and underserved childhood diseases, including cancer.
• When St. Jude opened, leukemia was the most common childhood cancer, and only 4% of kids survived. St. Jude developed a groundbreaking treatment that made leukemia curable, forever changing the fates of millions of children.
• Because of St. Jude the most common form of leukemia in children, Acute Lymphblastic Leukemia now has a 94% cure rate.
• Doctors often send their toughest cases to St. Jude because they have the world’s best survival rates for some the most aggressive childhood cancers.
This holiday season I’m asking you to support Expedia’s partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by donating your Expedia+ points. Over the next few weeks, several of my Viewfinder blogger friends are communicating other fascinating details about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and are encouraging their followers to do the same. You can check them out here:
THANK YOU!!
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