Michael J.

Michael J.

Michael J is keeping you in touch everywhere you find Country music: on the air, on-line and with the iHeartRadio app! If it's happening in...Full Bio

 

Did you know Dr. MLK Jr. died on the grounds of what is Now St Jude?

Got to meet the man who started Countryradio's involvement in fundraising for St Jude.

After a weekend at @StJudeResearch I am more charged up than ever to support families fighting cancer with their children. What a miraculous place. Ironically, the 35 acre #StJude campus where the hospital sits today is where #DrMartinLutherKingJr died in 1968 at what was then named #StJoseph. #MLKDay

I'm told there is 75 cents buried inside this statue I'm standing next to above. It's St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron Saint of lost causes.  At the dedication, Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude announced to a large crowd that he had the coins sealed into the cornerstone after getting them from a boy he had met at a fundraiser in Peoria, Illinois. The boy was blind and partially deaf and had told Danny that he had been inspired by the actors call “I want to help the poor, sick kids.”

In his hand was an envelope containing a half dollar and a quarter. Before unveiling the statue, Danny acknowledged donors from all over the Country whose contributions both big and small made the the dream of St Jude hospital a reality.

“A dream is one thing. A realization is something entirely separate,” he said. “I publicly thank you, wherever you may be, for the support of this dream. It took a rabble-rousing, hook-nosed comedian to get your attention, but it took your hearts, loving minds and generous souls to make it come true.”

Touring St. Jude this year for the first time in years, I was reminded time and time again of how important St. Jude Partners-in-Hope are to the hospital.  

On a cold January day, I was given a personal tour of St. Jude hospital by Executive Directors Rich Peterson and Lisa Surprenant.

After seeing the statuary in front of the hospital, I was shown a separate building in front of the actual hospital that gives a history lesson on the successful actor, comedian and television producer Danny Thomas.

 A Lebanese kid who spent his youth in Toledo, Ohio and his future wife's hometown of Detroit, Mi. before moving to Chicago to work the night club circuit.  Danny, a good Catholic, made a promise that if he was successful in his career, he would give back to the Church.  After meeting Cardinal Samuel Stritch, the archbishop of Chicago, Danny Thomas was talked out of building a shrine to the church. Instead, the Cardinal told Danny he should do something to help the needy and build something like a Shriner's hospital, where sick children could get free medical care. 

Initially, Danny Thomas wanted to build the hospital in Chicago where he started his show business career but Cardinal Stritch told him Chicago already had good children's hospital and he suggested they look at Memphis, Tennessee, where Stritch had started his career as a priest.

Memphis it was.

That building I told you about that houses this St. Jude history lesson is where Danny Thomas and his wife Rose Marie are interred and a small chapel offers people an opportunity to view a large 4 foot by 8 foot mahogany wood carving of the last supper that once hung in the Thomas' home.

Then I was taken inside the hospital where I saw so many amazing things.  

Patients and families were around as my tour continued, so due to HIPA laws and common courtesy, I didn't take pictures inside the hospital. I will share my mental pictures of a fascinating few hours in this magical place.

Every hallway is lit up with child inspired art work. Children design the murals and professional painters have come in to recreate their work in a seemingly endless mural of earth with green grass, trees, blue sky , sun and whatever the kids can think of. Included in the murals are sketches of actual patients.

I noticed an unusual phone on a number of desks throughout the hospital. These phones have two handsets attached. I learned that when a patients family is unable to speak in the same language as the doctor, both will pick up this phone and they are connected to translators so that everyone can communicate easily. 

I saw an area sponsored by Domino's Pizza and even a Domino's Pizza pinball machine in the "Teens only chill room." Along with comfortable chairs, a pool table and a game area, this is where kids can be kids and no parents are allowed! 

I walked through the Katie Couric wating room. Marlo Thomas, Danny's daughter has been an invited guest of the Today show for years introducing patient families and the story of St. Jude every year to NBC viewers.  Katie, a once long-time Today show host, donated a significant amount of blood, sweat and tears to the hospital and has been honored by having a waiting room area named for her.

My tour guides led me to an area of high-tech micron level super powered microscopes that allow doctors to see into the smallest particles inside the cell. They showed videos created from these microscopes showing cancer particles actually devouring healthy cells in the blood stream as they learn how to fight back with new protocols.

Next, I was shown the future at St Jude. Doctors have discovered that cancer is found in the very basic building blocks of our cells, the DNA.

Racks of super computers, with thousands of lights blinking, were lined up down a long hallway at St Jude, looking like something that could launch rockets for NASA. They were part of the St Jude Human Genome project. Crunching data and algorithms comparing the complete genomes from cancerous and normal cells for more than 800 patients, these machines are working constantly to break the cancer code.

St Jude has successfully pinpointed the genetic factors behind some of the toughest pediatric cancers. They are are now using multiple approaches to analyze cancer genomes even more deeply, developing this state-of-the-art clinical genomics program to better diagnose and treat children with cancer.

Then, I REALLY saw the future. 

A Proton Laser. Get this. During construction on this 198 million dollar machine and facility, the St. Jude Red Frog Events Proton Therapy Center is built on 6 solid feet of cement and 6 foot cement walls, housing powerful magnets and equipment that allows doctors the power to "paint' the tumor cells without destroying the surrounding healthy cells.

“It’s very important that we deliver precise treatment to children, and we’ve designed our facility in such a way that it will have one of the narrowest beams in the United States,” says  Thomas Merchant, DO, PhD, division chief of St. Jude Radiation Oncology. In addition to treating brain tumors, the new technology will also be used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma and other solid tumors such as Ewing sarcoma, neuroblastoma and retinoblastoma. 

When families get to St Jude with a sick child they find out, whatever insurance doesn't over, St Jude Partners in Hope will. But, St Jude does so much more than just work on making sick children well.

Holistically, St Jude treats body, mind, spirit and emotions. 

When kids being treated with drugs making food taste like metal can't stomach eating, specific meals designed just for them are created by world class chefs on staff at St Jude. 

Often times, families have siblings who are in Memphis too with parents during treatment. To help support the family while the kids are missing school, classrooms have been built at St. Jude to help patients AND their siblings keep up and stay on grade level while cancer treatment proceeds.

One of those sick kids was a boy named Shon Coleman from Memphis himself.  When Shon was diagnosed with cancer, he had been planning to attend Auburn University on a football scholarship. When St. Jude took Shon on as a patient, they created an NFL level training and weight room so that Shon could keep up during his treatment. With St Jude's support, Auburn held his spot for his return. Show repaid the favor by holding his 'NFL draft party' at St Jude the night he was selected for a spot in the NFL by the Cleveland Browns.  As a 6-7, 310 pound offensive lineman, Shon spoke to all of us from Country radio at the special seminar this past weekend and said he wouldn't be here if not for St Jude.

Now imagine, while a child is hospitalized for cancer, they also still need to see other specialists like dentists, gyn , therapists etc. All of those specialties are also found at St Jude as support for the cancer doctors. That way, parents aren't running all over the place for secondary treatment with a sick child.

There truly isn't anything St Jude hasn't thought of when it comes to supporting the family structure and all the children as they continue to get closer and closer to finally beating cancer.

The dream that started over 50 years ago when a night club entertainer, born to Lebanese immigrants, made a promise to a Catholic Saint to repay his blessings, continues to change the world today. I'm here to tell you that your contribution and generosity to St Jude Children's hospital is more powerful today than ever.  St Jude freely shares everything they learn in medical journals that are published around the clock. 

Discoveries are being made constantly and we're getting closer and closer to seeing a cancer-free world. I truly believe that will happen in our lifetimes because of St Jude.

Thank you for making THAT possible.

Michael J



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