When Jessica was growing up in the 1980s, her older sister was a patient at St. Jude. Unfortunately, she passed away. And as the years went by, Jessica avoided thinking and talking about her sister’s illness, not wanting to upset her parents. But then in 2020, Jessica returned to St. Jude, this time with her son Charlie.

That day, they learned Charlie had a type of bone cancer. “It was so shocking,” Jessica says. Charlie started treatment right away, and Jessica stayed with him. Visitation was restricted because of the pandemic, so they got to know St. Jude well. After months of chemotherapy and a surgery, Charlie completed treatment.

Now Jessica sees St. Jude as a place of hope. “This is like home for us because these people were with us and walked with us in these horrible times.”

Charlie says St. Jude did more than cure his cancer. “When I survived it, I feel like for my mom and for my grandparents, it was just like a full healing circle.”

Now Charlie is thinking about his future. He’s interested in becoming a research pathologist. And he got a chance to be a scientist for a day. You can watch a video of Charlie on the TODAY Show, visiting a St. Jude research lab here.

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

If anyone knows what it’s like to be a patient at St. Jude, Javon does. He practically grew up there. He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 2 years old. He went through years of treatment, relapsed twice and had a bone marrow transplant. He didn’t go to a regular school until he was in sixth grade. But through it all, his charismatic personality prevailed.

Javon’s mom understood what her son was going through. She had been a patient at St. Jude when she was a kid. She had leukemia and also relapsed. A difficult situation became almost too much to bear when Javon’s younger sister was also diagnosed with leukemia while he was in treatment.

Eventually, through genomic testing, Javon’s family learned they all have a genetic mutation called a PAX5 mutation, which is known to cause a predisposition to B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and be associated with relapses. Here is more information about PAX5 and other genetic predispositions.

You can read more about Javon’s mom and sister here. All three are now doing well. And Javon made up for lost time in school. He joined several honor societies and clubs in college, and he performed with the marching band — including an appearance on College GameDay. Javon still enjoys cooking meals he loved during treatment. You can watch him making fried catfish and some of his other favorites here.

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

Barry has seven kids, and he spent years as a state trooper. But nothing in life prepared him for the months he spent helping his son Luke through cancer treatment. “I just wanted to give him that strength to keep pushing through,” he says. “Let’s get through Monday on Monday. Let’s not worry about seven months from now.”

When Luke was 14, he started throwing up for no reason. It happened over and over. His parents took him to the pediatrician, to the ER, to specialists. No one could figure it out. His dad Barry knew something was really wrong and pushed for a CT scan. It showed that Luke had a brain tumor. In less than two weeks, he was at St. Jude.

Luke met the criteria for a study on medulloblastoma at St. Jude, and that’s why he was referred for treatment. You can read more about the study here.

Luke is now cancer free, and his relationship with his dad is closer than ever. And Luke is grateful for that. “One of the good things is it brought me closer to the man who basically lifted me up through all this,” he says. “And I don't think that's ever gonna go away.”

You can read more about Luke and see pictures from his days in treatment here.

And you can watch Luke and Barry trade dad jokes in this video.

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

The first time Corbin was treated for cancer at St. Jude, he was a precocious 3-year-old who loved to ride tricycles around the halls. The last time Corbin was treated for cancer at St. Jude, he was a magnetic 18-year-old who loved to play guitar and had big plans to fight for justice in the courtroom, even as he neared the end of his life.

Corbin had a genetic predisposition to develop cancer. In all, he was diagnosed with four different types of cancer over the years, and treatment options became increasingly complex. Corbin’s mom Heather says each diagnosis was a shock. But each time they returned to St. Jude, they felt hopeful, knowing his doctors would do all they could.

“I miss him terribly, and it creeps up on me and hits me sometimes” Heather says. But she remembers the way he’d make her laugh, the way he sat with young patients at St. Jude while they played video games, the way he refused to fall into bitterness, the way he never gave up on living. “I need to do that too,” Heather says. “I need to move forward because that's what he would want me to do.”

Please note this episode contains a few instances of mild swear words. St. Jude Storied Lives explores the experiences of patients and their families, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital understands that every family’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice. 

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

Angelique was an ambitious kid. She was curious about the world and driven to succeed. When she was a teenager, Angelique was diagnosed with leukemia and treated at St. Jude. Her time there forced her to slow down, but her care team planted the seed for a new ambition: nursing.

Eventually Angelique became an oncology nurse. With each patient, she remembered the empathy of the nurses at St. Jude, and let their lessons guide her. “I walked them through everything, taught them what their meds were, to take a lot of the fear out of it,” she says.

Angelique has lived and worked all over the country, but she returned to her native Memphis a few years ago. She’s devoted to her family and calls herself an “undercover helicopter mom” to two “miracle babies.”

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

Holly had a storybook childhood. She lived in a small town and spent her days running around the neighborhood with friends and playing sports. But when she was 12, a nagging pain appeared in her leg. After visits to several doctors, she got an unthinkable diagnosis: cancer. Holly thought that was the end for her. Then she arrived at St. Jude — and felt hopeful.

“That first time, they just came right up to us, gathered us, took us in,” Holly says. “Everybody's happy, which makes you, as a patient and a family, feel so much more comfortable being there.” She got to know her nurses and fellow patients — people who understood what she was going through.

Holly also stayed closely connected to her community, shuttling back and forth between home and St. Jude for treatment. And her community stepped up to support her. After her treatment, she grew up and began giving back. “We’re all going through different things,” she says. “In this big, scary world, we all need a little grace and kindness.”

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans 
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

Tyler was only 6 years old when he was diagnosed with leukemia, too young to really understand what was happening. His family was in shock. At St. Jude, they found comfort. There were tough days, but also a doctor who played with him, visits from professional basketball players and most of all a community of support.

Before his cancer was diagnosed, Tyler was in so much pain that he could barely walk. Now he’s a runner. He joined the track and field team in school and steadily increased his distances. His big goal was to run the St. Jude marathon in Memphis to help raise money and awareness — something he achieved when he was 17. “I wanted to give back and show people that you can do anything you want to do if you put your mind to it,” he says.

He has longer term plans to give back, too. He’s studying mechanical engineering in college, and he’d like to create prosthetic limbs that would let patients feel things again. “During treatment, you see a lot of people lose things,” Tyler says. “And one of the biggest things that I've noticed was a limb, and I decided I want to be able to give them back some sense of normalcy from that.”

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

Nick was a quiet kid who loved to play basketball. He had dreams of playing at a big-time college program, just like his dad. But when he was diagnosed with leukemia, those plans were put on hold. He was unsure of how to express his feelings about what was happening to him, until fellow patients at St. Jude encouraged him to start rapping.

Now Nick has an album out, and he’s got dreams about the music industry. He says his years of cancer treatment taught him how to shift gears. “It taught me not to have such a narrow scope. There's so much for you to experience and so much for you to do.”

There were difficult moments, too. One of Nick’s closest friends at St. Jude passed away. “It really hurt me,” he says. “I felt like the best thing to do was to keep living and keep going after what you want to go after.”

Life can sometimes deal you a bad hand, Nick says. “It’s okay to be down for a minute but try your best to bounce back.”

You can watch a video about Nick here

St. Jude Storied Lives is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This podcast series explores the experiences of survivors, letting you get to know the person and not just the diagnosis. St. Jude understands that every patient’s journey through treatment is unique. Listeners who have questions about their situation, diagnosis or treatment options should talk to their physician. These personal stories are not intended to provide medical advice.

Credits
Host: Joel Alsup
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Recorded by: Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell, Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey

When Lindsey was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, her condition was so severe that doctors wanted her to take an emergency medical flight from her home in Missouri to St. Jude in Memphis. But Lindsey refused. She was only 10 years old, and she wanted to have that car ride with her family, not knowing how much time she would have left.

Thankfully, that’s not how her story ended.

And at St. Jude, Lindsey says she inherited a new family, a huge care team of people who wanted to do more than cure her cancer. They wanted to help her thrive. She says that approach allowed her to preserve the joy of childhood, even as she was fighting for her life.

More than 30 years later, Lindsey has her own family now, and she’s grateful to be part of a supportive community of friends who know firsthand what it feels like to live through childhood cancer.

Donate to St. Jude: www.stjude.org/donate

Transcript available HERE.

Credits Host: Joel Alsup
Recorded by: Andres Garcia and Nathan Black
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Executive Producer: Louis Graham

This podcast is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

When Mariangeles came to St. Jude, she was stepping into the unknown. She was from Venezuela. She only knew a few words of English, and she’d never heard of Elvis or his hometown. She also had no other choice: doctors in her hometown had given her a week to live.

At St. Jude, the treatment protocol saved her life, but it wasn’t an easy road. She was in a coma for several days, and losing her hair later was devastating. But Mariangeles’ mother sat by her side throughout, and eventually St. Jude came to feel like a protective bubble.

After treatment, Mariangeles stayed in Memphis with her mother. She went to school there and forged a career. For a long time, she tried to leave her cancer story in the past. She didn’t share it with colleagues and new friends, not wanting others to feel sorry for her.

But now she works for ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude. She’s motivated to work hard for the cause because she knows what it’s like to walk through the doors of St. Jude without anything but hope.

Donate to St. Jude: www.stjude.org/donate

Transcript available HERE.

Credits Host: Joel Alsup
Recorded by: Andres Garcia and Nathan Black
Music production: Kazimir Boyle
Producer: Geoffrey Redick
Editor: Grace Korzekwa Evans
Executive Producer: Louis Graham

This podcast is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.