Enduring support from the Ferrises

Michael and Susan Ferris have supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for over four decades.

Michael, a physician in Nebraska and one of six children, traces his St. Jude journey all the way back to 1972 — the year his youngest brother, Tom, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, commonly called ALL.

That was the very same year St. Jude published a landmark study showing a 50% survival rate could be achieved for ALL, using a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. So, there was hope when their family physician referred Tom for treatment at St. Jude.

“Mom brought Tom to St Jude and had all of the tales to tell that a family who's been devastated by the disease, cancerous disease, had to tell,” said Michael. “Our family fell in love with the image of what St Jude was to my family.”

Heartbreakingly, after nine months of treatment, Tom passed away. But the care and compassion the Ferris family received at St. Jude would stay with their family forever and influence the man, and physician, Michael would become.

Years after his brother’s death, Michael had the opportunity to visit to St. Jude — this time as a medical student.

“I was a little apprehensive about how that might be emotionally but it was such a positive experience because St. Jude is a positive place,” he said. “It was a really great experience for me to work with the doctors who had treated my brother and to see the kind of love and care that that he got here.”

When Michael met and married Susan, their shared desire to help children and families in need became a foundational value of their family. St. Jude, where collaborations helped lead the way to better survival rates for ALL and other catastrophic childhood diseases, was a pillar of the young couple’s charitable giving.

“I describe St. Jude as a symphony of love and care. That happens because of collaboration and me, being in the medical field, I can tell you that as important as that is, that doesn't happen a lot,” Michael said. “In fact, I'm sure that St. Jude is unique on planet Earth for some of the things that they've been able to accomplish through that coordination between their clinical staff and their research scientists.”

As members of the Danny Thomas - St. Jude Society, a group of dedicated supporters that has included St. Jude in their estate plans, the Ferrises have had the opportunity to visit St. Jude several times.

“Even though we were all in, we've been all in all along. It's so impressive to come here and to see it and to feel it,” said Susan. “It just makes us want to go and round up our friends and family and say, ‘You need to join us in this effort.’”

Now, more than 50 years after his brother first came to St. Jude, Michael finds comfort in the progress he has witnessed. Today, 94% of St. Jude children with ALL will survive.

“We've been able to see that progression and the accomplishments that have happened,” Michael said. “That’s because of all of the people who are part of the family and have given their dollars to St. Jude.”