Bruce and Mary Jane Munsell celebrated and supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for years before cancer hit close to home — their great-niece became a patient. 

“It was more than 20 years ago when she was diagnosed, and at that time they gave her a 25 percent survival chance,” Mary Jane recalled. 

“She was in a clinical trial and she and one other child survived. It was a miracle at St. Jude.” 

The diagnosis was for acute myeloid leukemia, a difficult-to-treat blood cancer that St. Jude has made a priority in its research. In fact, the five-year survival rate for children diagnosed with AML has risen to around 70 percent, thanks to advances in AML treatment St. Jude helped introduce. 

Their great-niece is now in her late 20s and the mother of a toddler, and the Munsells continue to support children diagnosed with diseases like AML by making an annual contribution to St. Jude through a charitable IRA gift. 

“We thought the IRA was a good way to contribute a little more and go in the direction we wanted to go with our support of St. Jude,” Bruce said.

Retired high school teachers in their 70s living in Illinois, Mary Jane and Bruce celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in 2023. They love spending time with their puppy, Bernie — a Bernedoodle (a cross between a Bernese Mountain Dog and a Poodle).

Giving to St. Jude through their IRA provides the couple a way to pay it forward and helps ensure families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — so they can focus on helping their child live. 

For donors over 70½, funds transferred from an IRA account to a qualified charity may count toward the required minimum distribution and offer potential tax benefits to supporters.

“We channel our giving through our IRA because it is a great way to maximize the amount we give and the tax benefits, but most importantly our support helps children like my great-niece and so many others,” Mary Jane said. 

Both Mary Jane and Bruce have visited St. Jude and were impressed by the research and the care put into every detail to provide comfort and healing for the children and their families.

The image of children being pulled by families in red wagons is a memory that has stayed with Bruce, along with the check-in process that is tailored to include the young patients.

“St. Jude recognizes who is most important and it is the children at the hospital,” Bruce recalled. “This is why we support St. Jude. They help all these families every day, like they did our great-niece, and we remain grateful.”