ALSAC/St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food - so they can focus on helping their child live. Because of generous donor support, we can provide children cutting-edge treatments not covered by insurance, at no cost to families.
When St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was considered incurable. Since then, St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate from 20% to more than 80%, and we won't stop until no child dies from cancer.
Over Christmas 2020, something was clearly wrong with then 1-year-old Mikayla. She was pale, didn’t want to eat or play, didn’t giggle even when tickled. When bloodwork showed extremely low hemoglobin, she was hospitalized for several blood transfusions. These perked her up, but only temporarily. Then a bone marrow biopsy showed Mikayla had blood cancer.
“There are experiences I think in human life where we run out of tears, and that was one of them,” remembered her dad, Juan Manuel.
Mikayla was referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, where her cancer was identified as acute myeloid leukemia. Around this time, her great-grandmother received a certificate of appreciation for supporting St. Jude, to which she had donated for more than a decade. It seemed like a sign of hope.
At St. Jude, Mikayla successfully underwent chemotherapy, and her family never received a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food. She is now finished with treatment and doing well. “Our Mikayla is back,’’ said her grandmother.