From Survivor to Hero

In Conyers, Georgia, where the scent of blackened fish mingles with the hum of daily life at Fire Station No. 7, you’ll find Archie Collins. At 24, Archie walks these halls as a firefighter and EMT — a role he never expected to embrace. His journey began years ago, influenced by his father, who is a dedicated Memphis firefighter, and a life-threatening illness.

Archie's life changed when he was diagnosed with cancer at just 11 years old and was referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. His grandmother, Sybil Young, said “Cancer made him better,” explaining that his St. Jude experience honed his best qualities, or “grew what was good,” as she puts it. It focused him and set him on his path.

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The 11-year-old stood on his mark at the track meet. It was June 2012 in Memphis, Tenn., and all the boys were sweaty. But Archie’s clamminess felt different to him, like something was wrong inside. The race started, and Archie ran hard — until dizziness took over. The ground surged toward him, and everything went black.

Healthwise, Archie hadn’t felt right for a while. He had a strange growth under his jaw — “a big, golf ball–sized lymph node,” as he described it. And he had no energy. His family had taken him to multiple hospitals, but the cause of his swollen lymph node remained a mystery.

“So, we just kept going on,” Archie said. Until he collapsed on the track.

At the hospital, Archie was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “It was the first time I ever saw my dad cry,” Archie said.

“I was just in a state of shock,” Archie’s mom, Georgia Collins-Dorsey, said. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, my baby is fixing to die.’”

As Archie sat in the back of the ambulance on his way to St. Jude, his eyes were wide with curiosity despite the late hour and his fear. The young EMT, a kind lady with a warm smile, patiently answered his endless questions. “What’s this? What’s that?” he asked, pointing to various pieces of medical equipment. She explained each one with care.

At St. Jude, his nurse took her time with him, her voice calm and reassuring. She explained the IV and the catheter, detailing what each did and how it would help, all while working with brisk efficiency.

Immediately Archie found himself in treatment for his lymphoma. 

“The chemo made you feel terrible, terrible, terrible,” Archie said, but he found solace in talking with his doctors about how the treatment worked in his body. “They explained everything to me: pH balances, white blood cells, T blood cells.”

He realized he was the kind of kid who liked knowing medical things.

Whenever he was having trouble eating, Archie could get the cafeteria to make and deliver whatever he was craving right to his room. “Just seeing the paintings on the wall, the different children, the pictures, the story of St. Jude, I thought, ‘What kind of hospital is this?’ It’s like a little heaven,” he recalled.

A family

Archie had known he might lose his hair, but for the first two months of chemotherapy, it didn’t fall out. So, maybe it never would.

But one night Archie went to bed at St. Jude and woke up with clumps of hair all over his pillow. Most of his hair had fallen out overnight. He called out for his dad.

Staying at St. Jude had brought Archie and his dad closer. They exercised together every day to keep Archie strong. They prayed together, too.

Now, Archie wept as his dad gently shaved off Archie’s remaining hair. Then, in a show of solidarity, his dad shaved all his own hair off.

Not long after, the firefighters from his dad’s station came to visit. They had all shaved their heads, too. “Half of them were already bald,” Archie joked, “so they weren’t really losing anything.”

From that visit, Archie realized being a firefighter was like being part of a family.

Hero

After nearly half a year, Archie celebrated his No More Chemo party. 

“At the lowest time in my life, I found the best moments at St. Jude,” he said. 

Archie is married now. He and his wife just bought their first home. He’s living his dream of helping others as a firefighter and EMT, a dream that took shape at St. Jude.

He aspires to be as compassionate as the St. Jude nurses, who were “as sweet as can be possible.”

“Even if someone calls us at three in the morning about toe pain, I’m still nice because I think of those nurses,” Archie said.

And when there are fires, he fights them.

“St. Jude is my hero,” Archie said. “I want to be someone else’s hero.”