From childhood to college, and illness to purpose

Transcript:

Joel

Hi there, I’m Joel Alsup and this is St. Jude Storied Lives.

It’s a podcast about the families of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, what their experiences were like with treatment, but more than that, what their lives are like now that cancer is a part of their past and not their present.

I was a patient at St. Jude when I was a kid. I know from my experience that when you’re in treatment, you hear about all the things your body can’t do. Sometimes, it’s a restriction for a little while, like a few months of bed rest. Sometimes it’s a change that’s permanent.

Today you’re going to meet Tyler and his mom Michelle. Now, when Tyler was done with treatment, he decided that he was going to take back control of his body, and that if he was going to experience pain and discomfort, it would be from running toward a finish line.

Tyler

So when I first got into it, it was rough to say the least. I mean, going from having blood cancer, your bones get very weak and your body gets very weak, but you just start building up, and you start getting better and better. So eventually I got to the point where I could run a half marathon, and I actually ran the half marathon my freshman year of high school.

Michelle

I had flashbacks to him crawling in our room and seeing this little bald-headed kid, you know, getting chemotherapy and using throw-up bags and all the things that go through your head, and then to see him cross that finish line I mean, it was amazing

Joel

Tyler didn’t stop at half marathons. He now runs full marathons, including the one that goes right through the middle of the St. Jude campus. Really, he’s just getting back to the active self he was before cancer came into his life.

Tyler

When I was younger, I used to play soccer. I used to rock climb. I was actually called spider monkey because I could climb anything, you know. I was just a normal, active 6-year-old kid just having fun, you know, enjoying playing with my friends, hanging out, going to school, doing everything a normal 6-year-old kid would do.

Joel

Does that description ring accurate to you, Michelle?

Michelle

It does. He was very active. He did karate. He was in Scouts. I think his favorite hobby was pestering his two sisters.

Tyler

That is the truth, very much so.

Michelle

And that's still to this day. So not much has changed there, but that's pretty accurate, I think.

Tyler

Even more so now.

Joel

Yeah. Well, that was gonna be my question, Tyler, where do you fall in line of your siblings? What are you in that order?

Tyler

I am the youngest, so I get picked on a lot. So in my defense, they were the ones who started it.

Joel

(laughs) As the oldest I have to defend and say, they're perfect. They're perfect when you're the oldest.

Tyler

We both know they're not. (laughs)

Joel

So just thinking about transitioning from that normal life, from being the spider monkey playing soccer, you started feeling like something might be different, Tyler. What were the first signs that something might not be quite right with you?

Tyler

I was actually falling asleep in class. I felt weaker. I was really tired all the time, and my body just couldn't do the normal things I used to do, you know. It started almost giving out and started breaking down. And then eventually, one night, I just collapsed, and my legs and my feet were in so much pain, I could barely walk. I had to crawl to my parents' room to even be able to get help.

Joel

Yeah. What was that like for you, Michelle, when your normal, happy, healthy, vibrant, young son comes crawling into your room for help? What's going through your mind?

Michelle

It was heartbreaking. And having gone through this for a couple of weeks prior, you know, we had these ups and downs, and he was saying, "I don't feel good." And we kept taking him back. And to see him crying and screaming in pain and not being able to walk, it was just heartbreaking to watch like, we didn't know what else to do. And so your first instinct, I just picked him up and I held him and just said, "Things are gonna be okay. We're gonna get this figured out.”

And we actually did call our pediatrician the next day, and they said, "He's fine. There's nothing wrong. You were just here a week ago," and things kind of progressed from there.

Joel

Yeah. And I know, obviously, being a great mom, you didn't let it go. What were those kind of next steps for Tyler and his progression through his treatment here?

Michelle

Well, the next steps, we ended up going to a local children's hospital here, and they immediately started him on a morphine drip for pain, they began running blood work and checked us in. And the next morning, the head of the hospital came down and said, "Somebody from St. Jude is coming over."

And in that moment, it's terrifying. You hear the word St. Jude, and you know what it is. You know it's a cancer hospital, and we didn't know what to expect. So a resident sat down and told us we were gonna be transported by ambulance, which Tyler actually loved.

Tyler

I did love that.

Joel

That's kind of a cool thing.

Michelle

Yeah, it's kind of a cool thing. We were going to be transported over to St. Jude. And that's where our true journey began.

Joel

And what was your state of mind when you hear your child and the word cancer in that same sentence?

Michelle

I think you just kind of go into shock, you do. And I just kind of blanked on everything, and I kept asking, I know I kept asking the same questions over and over, and we were terrified. You know, we didn't know what to expect. You know, your heart sinks, and you think, "Oh, my goodness, cancer." You hear the word cancer, and it can be terminal. And that was the biggest thing in my mind. I was like, "What are they gonna do to help him? What are they gonna do to save him?"

And they transport us over to St. Jude and, as terrified walking into the unknown, we come into this hospital that's so amazing. And you come in and you're greeted with love and support from every angle, and a sense of calm kind of comes over you, because you know you're in the best place in the world. You know this is where they treat the toughest cases. So I knew in my heart, I was like, "Okay, he's gonna be okay." But your mind, of course, plays games, and you think, you know, "What if?" But I just put that out, and I said, "We're in the best place we can be. They bring people from all over the world here, and this is where we need to be." So we were terrified and kind of calm at the same time, if that makes sense.

Joel

And how did you feel, Tyler, other than thinking the ambulance ride was cool, was there anything else going through your mind with all this going on?

Tyler

I was confused, in a lot of pain and just wondering what was gonna happen next. Because, you know, being six years old, you're not really sure what's going on. You know, you see your mom, you see all your family members reacting this way. And you can't really comprehend what's happening. So you're in a state of confusion, you're worried, you're stressed, you're just wondering what's gonna happen next.

Joel

And how'd the rest of the family react? How were his sisters doing when they hear this and already having a cousin that's going through it as well? What are their thoughts?

Michelle

That's a tough one. They were shocked, and they were extremely worried. And it's funny now, I find pictures of those first moments after this happened, and I have pictures of them, you know, with Tyler in the room and the emotion on their face and the worry. And for kids that are, you know, 13 and eight, they shouldn't be feeling these things, and the worry was the main thing. They just wanted to see their brother. They wanted to know that he was okay. They wanted to know that he was going to be okay. So I think it was just the shock, the sadness, and the worry, it was really hard on them, especially having gone through it once, and then you turn around eight months later and you go through it again.

Joel

And, Tyler, for you, you know, I know a lot of it's probably going over your head, but I know you understand that now. What was the official diagnosis and how long of a treatment was that going to be?

Tyler

So I officially got acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is ALL, which is a cancer in the blood, and my official diagnosis was roughly about three years.

Joel

Do you feel like your sisters treated you better during that three-year time?

Tyler

Honestly, I'm glad for treating me the same, because that's all that mattered. And you know, I didn't want them to treat me any differently.

Joel

And how about that treatment process, Tyler? Do you remember anything about it, any particular ups or downs as you're going through this two-and-a-half, three years' worth of treatment?

Tyler

I remember one of my favorite memories, which is my doctor, Dr. Pui, would actually come into my hospital room at night and play dinosaurs with me when I was younger as a way of helping me keep my mind off everything and just acting like a normal kid.

You know, St. Jude does a lot to help patients feel normal. So there were a lot of like, you had, like Tri Delta come down. You had these, all these different organizations come down and just play with you, have fun with you, and just treat you like normal. And especially you, Joel, you were a big inspiration for me, and you helped me a lot. I know we had tons of fun together.

Joel

Oh, yeah. It's important to be goofy when you're going through treatment.

Tyler

Yes. And not to say, everything was okay, because there were some bad days and there were days where you really didn't feel like making it to the next day. But it was the people around you and St. Jude itself that helped me make it through each day.

You know, I had days where I didn't wanna get out of bed, where I was in so much pain I couldn't walk, and there were days where I thought that this might be my last but every moment and every memory I have, and every person I've met is the reason why I'm still alive today.

Joel

And how about it for you, Michelle, ups and downs, I assume, as well?

Michelle

Hearing him say that, now, he got me all choked up. There were ups and downs, and there's stories that we've never shared with anybody, because that's private to our family.

But like he said, there are people that got you through it. And I remember so many times like Dr. Pui, he would look me in the face and he would say, "Don't worry until I tell you to worry." And I held him to it, you know, I said, "Okay, I'm gonna hold you to this, and I'm gonna try not to worry, but I'm a mom, and that's my job."

But there were highs and lows, there were, and he just the perseverance and the strength he showed through all of it was amazing, and that's what counts. And the friendships he's made are friendships that are gonna last forever, especially with you and with Lindsey. You know, that's two of the people I think that really were important in his journey, and you were there from the very beginning until, you know, he's graduating high school.

Joel

I know. Don't make me think about that, now I'm gonna be the one that gets teary-eyed.

Michelle

I know, but it's the people like you that have helped us through this journey, because it is a journey of highs and lows. I mean, just very simply put, it is the hard times, like having to tell Tyler when a friend passed away, and having to deal with the grief of – cancer doesn't discriminate, and it takes whoever it wants, and dealing with that, and having to learn those lessons so young, but we got through it together as a family. We got through it with support of our community and our friends here and with St. Jude.

Joel

You know, knowing this has taken such a large chunk of his childhood, how did you kind of create that normalcy around this experience for Tyler?

Michelle

In the beginning, it was really tough. You know, we were so restricted on what we could and couldn't do. And we're a family. We're a large family, and we love to travel. You know, all 11 of us, my mom, my dad, my sister, and brother-in-law, and their kids. And so it was really hard for us in the very beginning, because we didn't have any normalcy. We didn't know, you know, he couldn't have friends over, he couldn't go to school, we couldn't eat out in restaurants. We couldn't travel. Travel was a big no-no.

So we did the best that we could. He was really into gaming. So gaming was that sense of normalcy for him. He could get on there, and he could put on his little headset and talk to his friends. His sisters did the best that they could, we had to keep the normalcy for them and try to keep the normalcy with him. And so we would try to eat dinner as a family when we weren't at the hospital, which was, you know, 90 percent of the time, we tried to just share in the little bitty moments and make it as normal as we could. But as soon as treatment was over, we made up for lost time.

Joel

Yeah. For sure. I see it all the time. Another cool thing, I wanna ask you about, Tyler, is I know you mentioned for some of the highs, like it was a lot of visits from groups or particular people. There's one particular basketball player you kind of bonded with when you were younger, and recently got to reconnect with him. So can you tell me a little bit about that?

Tyler

Well, I can always tell you about Marc Gasol, because he's one of my favorite people ever. Marc was there with me throughout my entire journey. He was there with me. I remember I met him at, I believe it was St. Jude Hoops?

Joel

Yeah, Hoops for St. Jude.

Tyler

Hoops for St. Jude. And soon as we met, we connected from there and he would stay with me after some of the times he came out to the hospital, talk to me. You know, we talked about all these things, about how I wanted to build him a bionic leg so he could jump higher in basketball. I told him I would slam dunk on him one day. You know, you just have these people, especially with Marc, building that bond with him, it's this huge NBA star, and he took the time to talk to a St. Jude patient. And he really made me feel like I was normal and that I could make it through this. And I'll tell you, every memory I have with him was such a joyous one. He's incredible.

Joel

Yeah. And what was that like, you know, getting to reconnect with him a few months ago?

Tyler

Oh, it was amazing. I was so happy to see him. When I saw his face, when he recognized me, he was like, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. It's you."

Joel

That was amazing. I love that clip.

Tyler

And I was crying because I was like, "I didn't know if he would remember me or not." And just the fact that he remembered me was amazing, and I really love him for it.

Joel

And, you know, Tyler, we talked about it being a roller coaster. I know toward the end of your treatment, you got an infection, and they thought maybe the chemotherapy had something to do with it. What was that like? What was that experience, thinking I'm almost done, and now here we are?

 

Tyle

So the infection was on, I believe, the entire right side of my body. And I was a little scared, and it was a little alarming, because, you know, I was almost there, and now it felt like it might all fall apart, or something bad might happen, because they actually had to take me off of chemo because of the infection.

And at that moment, I was like, "Is something bad gonna happen? What's gonna happen?" It was just a lot of worrying, stressful, but I just kept my cool, I said. "Okay, I believe in my faith. I believe in everything that's come up to this point. And I believe I'll make it through this."

Joel

And for a parent, Michelle, what was that like for you when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then all of a sudden this hits.

Michelle

Well, you get to that, you're almost at the end, you know, we're about 16 weeks out from, like, the end of that journey, and you have mixed emotions, you know what chemotherapy does. You know what steroids do. You know the job of all these drugs. And the alarming thing for me was, "If they pull him off, what happens? Does the cancer come roaring back? Do we start over? Do we have to start this journey again?" And there's so many things that go through your mind.

And Dr. Pui, you know, I walk in, and he goes, "Yeah, we're done." And I said, "What do you mean done?" And he said, "Well, we're done, you know, like, we're just gonna pull him off chemotherapy and we're gonna set up all of his appointments today." And they were rushing him in to do an MRI and spinal tap, and all these things, bone marrow. And you're very overwhelmed, because you don't know what the outcome will be. And the highlight of all of that, though, was getting that “no mo chemo.” So at the same time, we were scared and terrified not knowing the next step. They were like, "Oh, we're gonna have this no mo chemo party."

Joel

What was that like to finally get to that moment and know that the cancer was gone, you get to go back to normal life?

Michelle

It was absolutely amazing. And I'll say, you know, the no-mo chemo party that St. Jude puts on is amazing. And I will say some of our friends were there, including Joel.

Joel

I was on speakerphone.

Michelle

That was the highlight of speakerphone. And you heard Joel singing.

Joel

We do not need to find that audio for this podcast. It's pretty bad.

Michelle

Oh, I think we could.

Tyler

I think we need to. I think we have to.

Michelle

I think we could. But you know, that was such a highlight for us. And then going ahead, you know, and they told us it'd be about two weeks.

So we were like, okay, because anytime St. Jude tells you something, you get phone calls from them, and it's usually an automated system, and it says, "Your child has an appointment the next day," and you're fine because it's an automated. But the night of my birthday, it was just two days later, so it wasn't even the two weeks, I pick up the phone, and our nurse practitioner is on the phone, and your heart sinks because it was actually a real person on the phone. And she said something, I have no idea, but all I heard was MRD (Minimal Residual Disease) negative, and I knew what that meant. It meant that they did not detect any cancer in his blood. And we were like, "Okay, so that's good." So everything worked. And, you know, life, we can now keep going ahead and we can move forward.

Tyler

Best birthday present.

Michelle

Yeah, best birthday present ever, Tyler says, he says it every year. "The best birthday present ever."

Tyler

Yeah, nobody can top it.

Michelle

No.

Joel

And what was it like for you, Tyler, to finally be done, but leave St. Jude, this place that kind of had been your home and your comfort for the last two-and a-half, three years?

Tyler

It was a shock. It was kind of like a new chapter in my life. It was leaving some place I knew that I loved, but at the same time I knew that it was an amazing thing, because I got to go and start my own journey and my own life, because now I knew I was finally cured and that I was gonna be fine. It was a happy moment, and it was bittersweet. You know, you leave a place you've loved for so long, but at the same time, you know that you're going to move on and do better things and do amazing things.

Joel

And speaking of those amazing things, when did you decide to start running?

Tyler

I decided to start running basically, so the end of my eighth-grade year, I had gotten into track, and I had also been a part of the St. Jude Memphis marathon team for a long time. So those kind of intertwined, and then when I got into high school, I really started getting into it, and I realized my love for running is amazing.

You know, I love doing this, and I love being a part of this community, and the St. Jude community also have played an impact because they do the Memphis marathon every year, so it just kind of built up from there. And I was like, "You know what? I wanna keep on running for St. Jude, and I wanna play my part and do what I can to show other people that it's possible to do what you wanna do."

Joel

Yeah. And, you're not just running short distances, you're doing these long ones. So how did that go at first, when you were first getting into it?

Tyler

So when I first got into it, it was rough to say the least. I mean, going from having blood cancer, your bones get very weak and your body gets very weak, but you just start building up, and you start getting better and better. So eventually I got to the point where I could run a half marathon, and I actually ran the half marathon my freshman year of high school.

Joel

That's amazing. And what does it feel like once you got in the groove and kind of broke past those barriers, how does it feel when you're running?

Tyler

It feels amazing. It's like a rush of adrenaline, and it's just a rush of joy and happiness, because you're like, you know, "All these times these barriers have been put in place, but now I can finally break them on my own." And now I can finally achieve higher and higher heights. And I'm really excited to see how this goes. And actually, this past December, I ran the full marathon, which is 26.2 miles, or for some people, 42.4 kilometers, I believe. 42.2 kilometers.

Joel

Okay, it sounds right. My conversion skills are not gonna be good on the fly here. Why did you decide to do that, to put yourself out there in such a way to take so much time to train to do this full marathon?

Tyler

Because of the people at St. Jude. A lot of the people at St. Jude and a lot of people going through treatment, you know, they deal with a lot of stuff, and they struggle with a lot, especially when I was going through there I struggled with a lot.

But seeing that moment, and seeing how much, like, effort and strength that it takes to do that is what drove me to be able to do that. And I wanted to give back and show people that you can do anything you wanna do if you put your mind to it. Because, you know, a marathon isn't easy, especially as a St. Jude patient, it was a challenging task.

You know, I had to wake up at 4 a.m. some mornings to go run. But I wanted to show people that if you put your mind to it, I wanted to show the St. Jude patients that if you put your mind to it, that you can do anything and it's possible.

Joel

There's one particular part of the St. Jude Memphis Marathon. Every race route goes through the campus of St. Jude. What was that like for you to run through the campus doing the full marathon?

Tyler

It was amazing. It was the extra boost I needed to finish, because, you know, being through that campus, you see all these patients cheering you on, and all these patients who are going through treatment, and you just see why you're doing this, and you remember your why for why you're doing this. You remember why you signed up, why you decided, "I'm gonna do this," why you decided to fundraise. You see all the people who you're running to support, and it's just an amazing experience and such an inspiration.

Joel

Beautifully said. And, Michelle, for you what was that like to, thinking all these years before, watching your son crawl into your room because he's in so much pain, to now giving him that hug as he crosses the finish line as a full marathoner?

Michelle

Well, I said the whole time, "I'm not gonna cry, not gonna cry," and I saw him turn – and about mile 18 we had lost him for a little bit, and he was having some issues. He had gotten some leg cramps, and his best buddy, Jacob was with him every step of the way. Ran the entire thing with him on his cross-country team. And he and Jacob worked together, and they worked through those cramps and kept going, and he was like, "I'm gonna finish. I'm gonna finish."

 

And he turned the corner, and I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna be okay." And he got there, and it was such an overwhelming moment to know, to see in the back of my head, because I had flashbacks to him crawling in our room and seeing this little bald-headed kid, you know, getting chemotherapy and using throw-up bags and all the things that go through your head, and then to see him cross that finish line and set a goal as a 17-year-old to say, "I'm gonna run a full marathon for the kids of St. Jude by the time I graduate high school." I mean, it was amazing.

And what made it extra special, Tyler ran with some special bands on his arm. So anytime we have events that patient families or the public is involved with, they have yellow armbands with the St. Jude logo that are for survivors, and purple for the ones who have passed away. And Tyler wrote the names of his friends on the purple ones who he'd lost, and on the yellow he wrote the survivors he knew. And when he crossed that finish line with carrying that in his heart and just reaching that goal, was amazing. I mean, I could not be more proud of who he is.

Joel

And I know whether Tyler had gone through this experience or not, he was always going to be your baby boy. Do you feel like the experience and what you all went through together has changed how you relate to each other?

Michelle

I think so, he's definitely, you know, he comes to me for advice sometimes. We've always been a close family, but I think the closeness is even more so. And he and I went through a lot because I was the one that was here with him most of the time while Sean was trying to handle things at home with the girls and making sure everybody's fed and just all the other stuff that goes on, you know, just general life.

But I think it's definitely bonded us a lot. And I like to say that, you know, I played a small part in helping him step over that next goal. He's given me inspiration. He's definitely given me a whole new outlook on life.

Joel

How about you, Tyler, how do you feel? Do you feel like your relationship with your mom changed from what you've been through together?

Tyler

Oh yeah, we've gotten so much closer. And that love has just grown more and more each and every day. And, you know, my mom was one of the biggest reasons why I'm still here today, and without her, I wouldn't be here today, and I'm just thankful for everything she's done. Our relationship is just as close as it can be.

Joel

And so what's up now? Where are you in life? What's on the future horizons for you?

Tyler

On the future horizons, I've decided I'm going to the University of Alabama to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, because I wanna be able to build prosthetics and be able to do nervous system development, so I can create a prosthetic to where you can actually feel and have responses in your arm again. And the first person to get one is this guy right here, Joel.

Joel

(laughs) And what's funny to me is I just, I didn't know how much Tyler took it to heart, because I always joked about – I had a prosthetic. And this was in the '80s, in 1987, 1988 so the technology is not the same as it is now, and St. Jude was wonderful and helped me get the most cutting edge prosthetic for the time. But it really didn't do anything except close a hand that was going to have no touch sensitivity and crush whatever you grabbed. Yeah, so it was fun to pick on my brother and sister with it. And I realized I'm just telling this to Tyler jokingly, but you really took it to heart. (laughs)

I'm so flattered that that's part of the reason why you wanna do it. Why is it, broader reason that you want to get into this field?

Tyler

Because a lot of, you know, during treatment, you especially, you see a lot of people lose things. 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, because it's not fair to be going through all this and then losing a part of yourself that you've known your whole life. And I wanna just be able to give that back to somebody who's lost it and be able to help them out and be able to help them basically regain some normalcy and be able to regain a sense of themselves.

Joel

That's beautifully said. I'm so happy there are smarter people like you out there who are willing to do stuff like this.

Tyler

Well, you're the smartest person I know.

Joel

(laughs) Yeah, I didn't pay him to say that at all.

Tyler

(laughs) Yes, he did.

Joel

But just thinking about just the grander perspective of things. How do each of you all feel like St. Jude has changed you and the way that you look at life?

Tyler

It's definitely taught me how to appreciate life and how sacred a life is, and definitely that you should never take your life for granted, that you always have to keep on moving forward, even if you're going through challenging times, because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And sometimes that light seems like it gets farther away, but you'll always reach it in the end.

Michelle

Wow, pretty good.

Joel

He's a pretty smart kid.

Michelle

Pretty smart kid. Somebody did a good job raising him.

Tyler

My dad. (laughs)

Michelle

Yeah, you know, like I told you, we've always been a close family, and I think it just made that even more so, like, we cherish the little moments, and in life, like last night, we were all together watching a movie or watching a show. And it's just the little things, you know, being able to travel together, and being able to just be goofy and be silly and just be together as a family and working through things together. And it's made me cherish my family and my life.

And I have such a deep appreciation for the researchers that spend countless hours, that don't sleep until they get that breakthrough. You know, they're working on something, but they feel like they have to stay and to the nurse that would hold the throw-up bag for him or make sure that when he was having a meltdown that I wasn't having one at the same time. So it makes you just appreciate everything and value and treasure everybody around you.

Joel

Tyler and Michelle, y'all are amazing. I am beyond blessed to count myself as a small part of your family. So thank you so much for taking time again to share your story and your perspective.

Tyler

Of course, and like I said, we love you so much, and we're always happy to help. And you're a huge part of my family. I don't know why you say a small part.

Joel

(laughs) You got a big family.

Michelle

Yeah, we do have a big family, but you definitely have played, you know, it's funny Tyler tells that story because you are the inspiration for him, and you were the reason that his mind from 6-years-old, he would ask these questions, and I'd be horrified, going, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe he's asking Joel this." And you would just answer him and just plainly talk to him.

And I think that from an early age, you influenced him, and you helped him, and now he's gonna go on to do great things. And he's got you in his mind all the time. You know, I'm gonna build that arm, and I want Joel to be the first one to have it.

You know, it puts everything in perspective for you. And we thank you for being a part of our family and allowing us to love your kids and Lindsey as much as you do.

Joel

Well, thank you all. And, Tyler, I know that you're gonna go on and inspire another generation of patients, and not just patients, but people out there who might be struggling with something. So thank you so much for being that inspiration.

Tyler

Of course. And like I said, all the patients and everybody's an inspiration for me, so I'm happy to help out in any way I can.

Joel

My wife Lindsey and I are so honored to be considered part of Tyler and Michelle’s family. I can’t tell you how meaningful it is to sit with people at St. Jude for all these seasons in their lives, to share in the joy and heartache, and in their hopes for the future.

That’s what this place is all about for me, everyone who makes this St. Jude family of patients, doctors, nurses and researchers. We’re all there for each other. And supporters make it all happen. Thank you.

This podcast is a production of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It's produced by Geoffrey Redick and edited by Grace Korzekwa Evans. Music production by Kazimir Boyle. Recorded by Jason Latshaw, Nathan Black, Bobby Mitchell,

Orlando Palaez and Dan Yohey. I'm Joel Alsup, thanks for listening.

Announcer

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 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.

 

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