The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby - Surviving Cancer, Infertility & Miscarriage with Childhood Cancer Survivors

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

This episode is a little bit different from our usual episodes. We went to Memphis, Tennessee to chat with cancer survivors from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. http://fundraising.stjude.org/goto/Matt_and_AbbyxStJude [check out the link on our Instagram if you can't open it on your podcast app] Make sure to rate our podcast and leave a review if you can, it really helps us out!

My world as I knew it was completely over. Everything was just turned upside down. I was in drama club and I was doing gymnastics. And then all of a sudden, you're at the hospital every single day. Just trying to make it through. When you wake up in the morning and you are alive, that is a gift. I made it to week 23 and it was quite a journey. Every single week I was dealing with something new in my pregnancy.

My body just really wasn't handling it well So we went to the doctor and they couldn't find her heartbeat And welcome back to the unplanned podcast. We are back and normally these episodes are Super silly and lighthearted, but today we're coming at it with the more I mean we're covering some heavy topics We're interviewing two childhood cancer survivors today one who is still a kid and she'll be accompanied by her mother. And then we're going to interview someone that is now an adult. We want to give a big thank you to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for partnering with us on this episode. We're actually filming this here in Memphis, Tennessee, where they are located.

We ourselves are donating to St. Jude, but we're going to make it possible for you guys to donate to if you feel moved to. We'll put the link St. Jude, but we're gonna make it possible for you guys to donate too. If you feel moved to, we'll put the link in our show notes as well as a description of our YouTube video and in the bio of our unplanned podcast, Instagram account. It was crazy, it's like if everyone gave a dollar, we would raise like hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fight child cancer.

And pay for patients, cancer treatment, just like the patients that we're gonna interview today, because St. Jude actually never gives these kids and their families a bill. How incredible is that? It's amazing. And actually our first patient is just now getting off the elevator, so.

Wow, okay. Let's get started. We are here with Aspen and Stephanie. Stephanie's Aspen's mom, and we're so happy that you guys are here with us. Thank you for sitting down to be the center of you. Thank you, Aka. Thank you, Aka. We're so happy

to have you. I'm obsessed with your dress. It's so pretty. And you just did something very cool. What did you just do? I became the duck master. The duck master. And what does the duck master do? They lead the ducks. They lead the ducks. That's so cool. Yeah, we're staying at the Peabody Hotel Memphis and they have this cool ceremony where they lead ducks into the lobby to then swim in the fountain. So, Aspen just got to lead that.

That's really, really cool. Aspen, how old are you? Seven. You're seven? Yes. So what grade does that make you in? First grade. Very cool.

And what are some of your favorite things to do, Aspen? Do I do PE? I like to read and go, have adventures, and play with my pet, give me a pig. That's very cool. And I even take him a bath, and I like it when he takes a bath. So, he does he like it? Yes, but except for the face. Yeah, well, we are so happy to have you here, and we're here he like it? Yes. But I said for the face. Yeah, well, we are so happy to have you here

and we're here in Memphis because we're learning more about what St. Jude is doing to help in the fight against childhood cancer. I want to hear more about your story, but just from what I've heard, you both are so, so strong and so, so brave. And I guess the first question I have to ask is, how did you first find out that Aspen had cancer?

Like, what was it that kind of made you think maybe when she get this checked out? When she was six months old, she was diagnosed with VSD, so she had a hole in her heart. And then when she was a year, and I think eight months, she started getting sick. Like, she didn't want to move a lot.

Like, she had these low grade fevers. And at first, we thought that maybe it was an infection in her heart. So she spent, I think, 10 days in the hospital that specializes in the heart. And they couldn't find anything wrong with her. So we brought her to another hospital. It was the best hospital in our country and they had her checked and I think the one that confirmed it was a bone marrow aspiration. So she was one year and ten months and I think the surgeon casually just informed us because we were like, what is wrong with her? And he said, oh, and he was, I think it was his personality. He was very jolly about it. Like he was,

because he's a child's doctor. So he's used to smiling a lot. Yeah. Like he has neuroblastoma. And then we didn't know what it was. And it's cancer, and it was just a lot to take in, but then he asked, how far would you like to take this? And my husband and I just looked at each other and we knew the answer that we'll fight, like we'll do it. Well, that moment had to be such a crazier reminder of how fragile like this.

Yes. Young or old, rich or poor, no matter where you are and at the point of your life, it can be taken away. Yeah. I mean, for her age, at one year, 10 months, you can't, right? And then now. Yeah.

How did that change your perspective on life? Like looking at it from that perspective of wow, like there's really nothing locked in for anyone, you know? No one can tell whether you live tomorrow later. We don't know. So I'm convinced a hundred percent, a hundred and one percent more, that when you wake up in the morning and you are alive, that is a gift. I've talked to my children, my eldest daughter about this, like trying to explain to her. There are now 8 billion people in the world, and I'm sure everybody prays. And you can pray all you want, right?

But it's not you who gets to choose which prayer gets to be answered. I guess probably one of those biggest blessings at the time was probably getting in contact with St. Jude. How did that go about? How did that connection get made? It's another gift. There's a thing. In 2017, when a doctor's diagnosis or she was stage four, they had to tell us that you have to make a decision. We have to act fast. They asked us, did you want the European way or the American way?

I didn't even know anything about those things. And so they explained the protocol and we chose the American way about the chemo first and then the tumor removal and it was St. Jude protocol. Then later on, the doctor called, that was in August of 2019. And she said, the blood cancer is back. There's no treatment right now that we can do because we already did the protocol and

the last step is immunotherapy. She was very honest about it and she said, we have never done that in our country. If we would attempt the immunotherapy, that's probably $300,000 per session. And she said, we can, it can make you really poor after this. But there is no assurance that she's gonna live. So her option was, how about we just give her whatever we can and let her live as long as she can and wait for treatments that will become available. So she was, it wasn't curative.

It was just to prolong her life. And what options did you have? Yeah, exactly. Like, that's coming from the best doctors in our country. Yeah. And then, okay, we said, and then, you know, in a week's time, she called me again. And she said, you know what, Saint Jude reached out. Wow.

And there is a protocol that she can be, she can qualify for. Like, okay. And she said, are you interested, of course, as a mother, you're interested for anything, right? Mm-hmm. And then in a month's time, we were here. How did that feel? Like, when you found out that St. Jude was going

to take on Aspen and fly you out to Memphis from the Philippines, I mean, that's a really, that's a long ways away. And I'm assuming your whole, did your whole family come to? Like, how did, how did that make you feel finding out that St. Jude was willing to Was willing was willing to help another blessing again. Yeah, I'll tell you it's all full of blessings

I'm where you sh- where you shocked like where you just are we were very happy It was just me and my husband and her okay remember this was September 2019 Okay, The first people were first St. Jude and they were from the bus drive. I mean, a shuttle driver. It was very kind to us. I know his name Kelly. Kelly, right? Kelly, right? Nice guy. That's a Southern hospitality though. Yes. So we were so surprised. Yeah. Because everybody was smiling and like, okay, this is gonna be funny. This is back home, we don't really talk. I mean, we're friendly people.

If you go there, we're very hospitable. But then people here say, hi, how are you? Right? Yeah. Okay, I'm not from here. I would expect like, okay, you ask me, I'm gonna answer you a long answer right? But then when you try to talk and like say something, they walk away. Like, what's wrong with how? But it was just like, but I appreciate that because. Is that making you laugh, ask me?

Right, like they'd ask you, hey, how are you? And then you're gonna answer and then, oh, they're gone. They're asking you. And we were walking downtown and strangers would say, hey, hi, how are you? How are you doing? That's very nice. And I remember, gosh, I forgot his name, the Chaplain, over at St. Jude during that time.

He said something very beautiful to me when we got there because at the first week, you're going to meet the whole team from my child life, quality of life, the chaplain, social work, everybody's going to sit down with you and explain to you what's going to happen. And the chaplain was like, you know, here's St. Jude, we hate it when somebody's standing and nobody approaches that person and asks them, do you need anything? Yeah. And I felt that. Did you have to learn English when you moved here?

Like did you already know English? Okay. That's a whole other thing too. You know what? I'm going to take this opportunity to just share. We were colonized by America in 1898 during what you call that truity of Paris when Spain sold us to the United States. And we fought with you alongside with you World War II.

So ever since 1898, I could be wrong, sorry, but America gave us the public education system. Our University of the Philippines, they built the first university there, and everything, well, yeah, most of things are in English. So to answer your question, everybody in my country knows how to speak English. Whoa! Yes, and we have two how to speak English. Whoa. Yes, and we have two national languages, English and Filipino. Wow, see, she's been bilingual like ever since, and most people are, I'm guessing everybody is in the Philippines

because of... Yes, sir. We are required to learn the Filipino and English. Wow, yes. Aspen, do you don't want to be Filipino? I speak before when I was at spealy beans, but no. Oh, yeah. I've been teached.

You've been taught English, right? Yeah. But you understand, right? Yeah. Well, Aspen, you probably don't remember when you first came to St. Jude, do you? Because you were so little? No. No, but now you know St. Jude a lot.

What was your favorite part of St. Jude? What's your favorite? Maybe spot They have any I don't know I know they make they have a whole like food area for kids, right? Is the food that you like the food that's saying to you? I like hot dogs Hot dogs so much even the pizza Really oh not the broccoli You don't of the broccoli in the like really? Oh not the broccoli. You don't like the broccoli? I only like the broccoli that's without it. Did you make friends at St. Jude? Yeah. No, a little bit. It was September 2019. Yeah. Do you remember

what happened January to March 2020? That was the closure. Oh yeah. So it was just her, me and her dad. Yeah. And January 2020, we were able to bring her siblings here and boom, it closed. And that's why I say it's a blessing again because we just got them in time. When you moved here, at what point did you find out, St. Jude covers it. You don't have to pay bills anymore for the hospital expenses and they came out like, why did you- Because you said her treatment was extremely expensive. Well, from the beginning, sir, before we said yes, we had to ask if we had to pay for anything because I have nothing to pay and and they said it was gonna be free.

Wow. And that's nice, right? I was in a foreign land with my daughter, who was dying during that time, and they were open doors, and will help you every step of the way. I didn't even have to ask for anything. They thought of it first, like from the food, from everything. Like I never thought a hospital can give so much now. Like because back home the hospital would like,

what can you pay for? I mean everywhere. You know, yeah, what can you pay for and what you can pay for? That's the service that you will get. Yeah, But it's saying Jude, like, skies the limit. Right. Like, they have a choice for her. Like, I mean, I don't know. I've never felt that kindness before. If you give to St. Jude, like, this is the proof. Yeah.

This is the proof that every cent that you give, a child is saved, and they try their very best because they had to tweak her treatment. They never gave up on her. Yeah. Yeah. And now she's in remission. Yes, she is.

Congratulations. Yeah, that's... You're so strong. And how long has that been? They put in the the port October 25, 2017 and they they told us that she was free to go. October 25, 2021. Well, a special day. We're so glad you're here. You're such a sunshine. Yes. Your laugh just makes me want to laugh. I love your laugh. That's been so fun. You're so happy. You're so precious. Well, and I wanted to ask, like, what do you have to say to people that have given a Saint Jude or are currently giving

a Saint Jude? Thank you. It's hard to believe in kindness. You've seen the world, right? Yeah. And sometimes you doubt, like when you bring babies into this world. Yeah. But here again, St. Judas Leica reminder, there are faceless strangers that you will probably never meet. Yeah. But they set aside of their money every month to give.

And then there's this hospital that's so full of kind people and it gives you hope, right? It gives you hope to believe that if there are many strangers who are willing to help and they don't even need to thank you. Yeah. Because I don't get to see them, but I want to say thank you. You are such an inspiration to me as a mom. Like I cannot even imagine being told all the things you've been told. The way you've gone about it with so much humility and graciousness is something I will never forget.

So thank you so much for sharing such a vulnerable, but beautiful story. And we will pray for your continued health and for your family. And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Sue. Thank you. Thank you. We are here with Jessica, our next guest. Super, super excited to have you on with us.

Your story is so incredible. And I just hope that we can do our best to share that with our listeners. You all are awesome. And thank you for coming back. I mean, this is your second trip to Memphis. Yes. And we are now establishing a program for creators,

and I feel like we've learned so much from you all. Like, you are helping to kind of create this program and help us build it from the ground up. So thank you for everything you've done and for being here. Well, thank you. We just want to, I mean, we have this audience, and we just want to do good with what we've been given.

So I'm just so thankful that we're here, and I'm excited to share your stories that more people can hear about what St. Jude's doing to fight childhood cancer. Yeah, St. Jude just feels so special. Like it is. So how old were you when I can take you back to the beginning? So I was in the fourth grade

and I started having fever and night sweats and honestly I was just tired all of the time. And I had a neck ache, but I was a gymnast. So my mom was like, oh, you just tumbled and twisted your neck the wrong way. We thought I could shake it off. And it just, honestly, the symptoms were getting worse. And we weren't getting anywhere.

So we searched for a diagnosis for about two months. And I probably did 30 blood tests and some unsidated bone marrow aspirations, which were really hard to go through as a kid. And that was at my local children's hospital, as we were looking for a diagnosis. And we eventually were told the words, okay, we have figured this out. You have the most common form of childhood cancer and you're going to be going to St. Jude tomorrow. Wow. Like tomorrow.

Yeah, tomorrow. And for me, in kindergarten, even since I was just starting elementary school, we had done the mathathon and the tri-cathon. So those are St. Jude fundraisers. So I knew what a St. Jude patient was and I knew about the sweet kids fighting cancer at st. Jude fundraiser. Yeah. So I knew what a st. Jude patient was and I knew about the sweet kids fighting cancer at st. Jude. And also my dad had cancer when I was four. So just a few years before I was diagnosed.

Wow. So my mom was really set up well to be our caregiver because she knew it to expect she'd already gotten my dad through it. Oh my gosh. But also we were terrified because we did know, oh wow, this is going to be a long journey. And so the next day we walked in

and the treatment process, it's two and a half years of chemotherapy. And as a nine year old, when you hear, it's 125 weeks of anything, it feels like an eternity for a child. And I started chemo the day that I walked in. They hung up this big bag of chemo that looked like Mountain Dew, bright yellow.

And it was a 12 hour chemo that slowly went in. They just basically get after it right away. Because you have to, when the child is getting sicker, you have to jump in and start intervening. Yeah, what stage was it when they found it? So with leukemia, there's low risk and high risk with what I have, and I was low risk, and we found that out with time, basically,

because we had to do this spinal tap to see if it had made it into my spinal fluid, and it hadn't. So I was really lucky. And the treatment protocol is just, they've got it down to an art and this this protocol that was two and a half years, there was a at that time it was a 75% success rate, but now just it's incredible. So I mean over 95% just absolutely amazing. And that's the most common form of childhood cancer. And that's not the survival rate for all of them. And that's why we have so much work to do at St. Jude.

What was that like to go through so much as a child? Like I can only imagine having to deal with everything going on, having to probably mature at a young age to deal with such a heavy issue. How did you approach that as a nine-year-old? Yeah. So I remember what happened basically, my parents were waiting on me when I got home from school.

They were never both home and they were like sitting on the couch and I knew we'd been looking for an answer. I knew things were not good when I saw that. And they told me they were going to talk about something related to health. So I'm in heavy, yes. I could tell me they were gonna talk about something. Related, you're heavy, yes. I could tell, I could just read the room. And I remember this like it was yesterday.

It was like everything became slow motion. You just have to take a minute, take a breath. I knew everything was changing. My world as I knew it was completely over and I was starting a new phase. I knew it was going over and I was starting a new phase. Yeah. I knew it was going to be everything about me. It was going to just take over. I went to the bathroom and I just kind of laid on the bathroom floor and just took it

all in. But again, the next day was incredible. We met my care team. My mom went to the pharmacy to get my medication. And you know when you go to the doctor's office or the hospitals you have copays? Yeah. So she was expecting, oh, it's a huge bag of medication. I'm going to have a large copay.

Yeah. So she got her purse out to pay and all of the families in the pharmacy just started whispering. And they were like, oh, she's new. It's a new family. She's just like, how did they know? Yeah. And they were like, put your purse up.

You are never going to, oh, St. Jude, ever. You're never going to pay for anything here. And we never did. No family does. And I can't wrap my head around that. Yeah. No, I literally have to tell you. That is so, so cool. Isn't that crazy?

Because I mean, what is the cost of cancer? Like, how much does that cost a treat cancer? Yeah. I'm sure a massive number. I don't even know what that is. Yeah. So the most common form of childhood cancer, what I had, it cost over half a million dollars.

Wow. Like, there's also side effects that come and things that you're not expecting. So that's just the average. Yeah. And I don't know. Some people would have to take out a loan on their home, right? Yeah.

And now that I'm a mother, like you'll do anything for your child. You don't think twice about it, right? Oh, totally. But just the fact that the parents only have to worry about getting the child well, being their support system, sticking together as a family, because everything else is taking care of. Yeah. So, that's really hard for me still to wrap my head around this far out, because normally

I feel like if you want the best of anything, you have to pay top notch. And it's most certainly not coming without a price. But, well, and like you said, the resources at St. Jude go so far beyond the medical side of things, like with having the social work, the emotional help. And by the way, I am curious, like what do the child life, is a child life therapist? Yes.

So an example, my little sister had a baby doll, and everything that I went through so did Jordan's baby doll. So they're helping the child understand what's happening through play, because that's what the child understands. So like if I had a surgery, so did her baby doll. Where were you living before your diagnosis? Yeah, so I actually grew up right outside of Memphis. So I was just so blessed to be in the area. But I quickly became friends with kids from all over the United States. Wow. And all around the world.

Like I had friends from Bolivia and friends from Bolivia and you name it because St. Jude is treating kids from everywhere and St. Jude takes care of everything. Puts the family up in a housing facility for the entire duration no matter how long it is. But for me, I was lucky enough to go home at night. So, yeah. Did you mature like so fast at such a young age dealing with all these heavy topics and heavy things in your life? Like, it talks me more about that too. That's a good thought. My mom always told me that she had to put like our dolls up. They never got played with everything just kind of shifted. The focus, what was important, just everything

was just turned upside down. You do grow up fast. I feel like I remember it all like it was yesterday. My mom kept everything really open for us. Parents get to handle it however is comfortable for them, right? My mom wanted to share and let me know everything that was going through. And I wanted that. I like for me knowledge was power and I wanted to know what was about to happen. And I want to know all the pieces and I want to know what medication I was getting that night. But yeah, absolutely. Everything just kind of shifts and your priorities change.

And you have a new normal. I was in drama club and I was doing gymnastics. And then all of a sudden, you know, you're at the hospital every single day. And you are just trying to make it through these treatments. The child life therapist back to then, when it was time for me to go back to school, they did a reentry program, which was really cool. They went back to my classmates and they answered questions. I was in the fourth

grade and so the fourth graders had questions like, is cancer contagious. When Jessica comes back, like, could I get her cancer? And they showed a video in terms that they could understand. And they said she's gonna look different, but she's the same Jessica. She's gonna wear hat. And so the teachers let them all wear hats. And they love that.

And they were amazing. But the reentry program was really, really great. Because it helped me to come right back in after I'd been gone for so long. That's really cool, because I was gonna ask if, like, being in fourth grade, if it was hard then to relate to your peers, maybe it's still in a way it was, even though they knew what was going on or what happened,

but they hadn't lived it like you had. I think that's really special because you have each other to lean on at St. Jude. No matter where these kids are from, you have the same thing in common that you're fighting these diseases, and you're looking to each other for inspiration and for strength.

And for me, like an example, I was in the lab on the first day, and I was scared to go in and get my blood drawn. And this little girl who was five, I was nine, she was five. She was like, hey, I can tell you're scared. Do you want me to go in with you and hold your hand? Sweet! She went in with me and I was like, if this little girl can do it,

I'm the older one here, I can do it. So I think you make this new set of friendships and you have this bond, and that's really cool. And back to the housing facilities, we have several at St. Jude. I think that's really special too, because sometimes you're living together, and the families are bonding together, the moms are able to lean on each other.

I thought about that, like having someone, another mom that is going through that has to make all the difference. Now there are mothers I can't imagine what that is like. I think it might be harder on the parents. For me, I feel like it was harder on my sister and on my parents because I just knew, oh, hey, I have no other choice. We're getting to the end of this finish line.

Yeah. Whatever it takes, we'll get there. But the family has questions. Like, is she going to, like, my sister asked my mom, like, is Jessica gonna make it? She was younger. She was 17 months younger. So she was in the second grade. And then she had to grow up too. So my parents were with me all the time. And my sister is so independent. She's like standing on a step stool, cooking her own dinner. What?

They were taking care of me. And so she's like, I got this, she'll do you. And your mom, your mom had just dealt with your dad right who had cancer right before you. So your poor mother, her husband gets cancer, and then it's like, okay, we're off the hook, we're good. And then you get cancer. I can't imagine. She's like being single.

You know the Molly Brown caretaker? Yeah, the Titanic. I feel like that's my mom. She's four foot nine, and she is just a warrior. Like don't mess with her. She's gonna take care of it all and she's like, we're gonna make the best of this. So yeah, she was the glue that held us together for sure.

I wonder what her experience was like going from like a husband going through that and like how that was different from having a child go through that. Yeah, I mean, she was great at it. I mean, my dad as well though, it was really cool to have his perspective as a patient.

So yeah, they were both just the best. For the listeners, you work at St. Jude. Now you work for St. Jude. You went through the program and like, how did, how did that come back? That's so cool that you are now a part of the organization that helped save your life. Yeah, it's so natural, right?

Like this, it was a homecoming for me to end up back at St. Jude. I'd always wanted to be in TV news as a producer, like on the other side. So that's what I went to school for. Also, by the way, that's kind of fun. Like seeing you do your production, they're like, it's fun to be back in production.

But I loved it, and I love the breaking news side of things, but it was also, there was just a piece of me that was like, okay, I don't feel like I've fully reached my calling. And this opportunity became available to work at St. Jude, and I lived in Nashville, and I got to stay in Nashville, but work for St. Jude, and specifically,

I support our music partnerships. And there's a lot of that going on yeah in Nashville. So there's a huge country music program Country cares has been supporting St. Jude for about 30 years now. Wow start about Alabama I don't know if you're familiar with Randi Owen. Yeah from the last event. Yes We got to hear Randi Owen at the last of it. He's saying for everybody that was really cool. Right, he closed the show out. He was so great. He's funny. He's so funny. So he started the program, made this call to his peers, and said, hey, we need to do something.

We need to come together for these kids that need us to Memphis. Yeah. And now the country music industry is just raising millions for a St. Jude every year. Cool thing for me is, as a St. Jude patient, that program was was happening. And I didn't listen to country music, but I got to meet some of these

artists who would come through and visit the hospital. And I fell in love with them. And so I would say, Dad, we need to listen to that lady's music because she was so great. She spent so much time with me in my hospital room. And then I found out, for example, it was Martini McBride, who was this big artist. Yeah, so then I became just a country fan and my husband's now a songwriter, and I work in the industry. So it's so cool.

The full circle. Yeah, full circle. Yeah, and I get to give back for all that I have, which my entire life is because of St. Jude, right? Yeah. I have much to give back for. Most people here speaking are like sharing their stories. We're one's patients. That speaks so much to how St for. Most people here speaking are like sharing their stories, were one's patients.

That speaks so much to how St. Jude is as an organization, and like the culture at St. Jude. Because if like kids are going through the hardest thing they'll probably ever go through in their life, you would think they would never want to return to a place where, you know, it could have been such a dark time. Right, it could be traumatic. It could be traumatic.

It could be traumatic. It's not. Yeah. So many times it's the opposite. Like it's this positive place. My mom always called it. It's kind of strange to me. But it can't for hairless children.

She's like, there's always something going on. It's almost like Disney World of Hospitals. Yeah. It's such a fun place to be. A place full of life, a place full of hope, hope in the hallways is what you feel when you're walking through, the security guard, the gift shop ladies

who knew my sister's name and it worked there for 30 years and are still there. I mean, everybody is just so thankful to be working there and to get to spend time with these amazing children. And it's a really special place. And I think that speaks a lot to like, St. Jude's beginnings and like the founder, Danny Thomas, because we learned so much about like the beginning,

obviously last time, and how his story is starting it. Like, yeah, I was gonna share a little bit about like how he got St. Jude started. Yeah, sure. So Danny Thomas was a struggling entertainer back when the hospital was founded. He was famous in the 50s and 60s and he wasn't doing very well. And so he prayed to St. Jude who was the patron saint

of hopeless causes. And he said, show me my way in life and I'll build you a shrine. And so the next day I think he got a toothbrush commercial and things just started popping up and his career really took off. The cool thing is is Danny remembered his promise. And so he was like, I want to build this hospital that treats kids regardless of race, regardless of creed, background, no matter where you're from. That was, he was really a visionary too. I mean, St. Jude opened in 1962.

And this was his dream to treat kids from everywhere, no matter their background. Yeah, I feel like he set such good roots for he's a dude. Absolutely. I just like he said such good roots for Yes, absolutely. I just love how like they talk about how kids come in the doors and it does not matter their race, it does not matter. Their socioeconomic status, it just like everyone is just here and has the same mission.

Yes. And everybody deserves to have access to the same care. And it shouldn't be based on if you can afford it. Or where you were born, where you're living. So that's what we are. Absolutely incredible. And I want to remind our listeners, you asked Ken Donay actually,

and there's a link in our description, as well as in the bio of our Instagram, our podcast Instagram account. So check that out and in the show notes too, right? They were gonna put that. I love that. Thank you guys. And we're gonna actually write the show notes too, right? Babe, we're gonna put that. I think we can do that. Thank you guys. Yeah, and we're gonna actually write

thank you notes to those that donate 50. Oh my goodness. 50 hours or more. So please donate. Abby's hand is gonna be falling on. I love it. For the kids. It's for the kids.

We'll tag team. Like all right one, you right one. We'll tag team. And you guys can guess who's handwriting you got. Oh my gosh. Yeah, oh my gosh. But I think yeah, when they donate, I think it'll ask for their address. And then we can guess who's handwriting you got. I love it. Yeah, oh my gosh, but I think, yeah, when they donate, I think it'll ask for their address. And then we can also know where to send it.

Thank you. And I'll be on the phone. That is very, very cool. Yeah, I'm stoked. I'm stoked. So please donate. But back to questions, I have so many questions for you. Sure.

First of all, you've been through all this, but then chemo as a kid, that affects your life, even though it's incredible that you went through the St.G. program and that it's just incredible, but there's ramifications to chemo, right? You have to deal with certain things after all that. How has that affected your adult life? Great question. I've been off chemo for more than 20 years. Wow. I have plenty of side effects. I have bone damage caused by the large amounts of steroids I've taken

in life. I had to have heart surgery to replace a valve that was damaged. And then now I have an autoimmune disease. And basically my immune system has just been overactive and just been crazy on the struggle bus. So that was a kid. And so the autoimmune disease basically created a new issue. My husband and I were having issues getting pregnant, but we finally did. And I made it to week 23, and it was a quite a journey. Every single week I was dealing with something new in my pregnancy. My body just really wasn't handling it well.

But since I was in the second trimester, I thought, oh, we've made it. We're like coasting all the way to the finish line. And then I stopped feeling that baby's heartbeat or you know you can feel kind of kick so we went to the doctor and they couldn't find her heartbeat and it was devastating. It was definitely the hardest thing that I have ever been through. So basically just one thing led to another. And at that point, we just took a breath and grieved for a while. And a few months later, my angel of a friend from elementary school sent me a text message and said, every time I'm still, I hear a voice telling me, I need to carry your baby.

Oh my gosh. And she was like, is there any way I can do that for you? Was her question? It's okay to have ties. It's okay if not. She was like, it's okay if not. I just felt the need to ask. Now, it's like, oh my gosh, this is-

That she had children? Yes. Three kids of her own. And she was a preschool teacher. I mean, this is like, she's the best mom I knew. So the fact that she was offering me this, like I was calling her for sure with questions throughout my pregnancy

because she's just great at being a mother. I was like, this is too much over text message. Let's talk tonight. Let's talk tonight. Let's talk tonight. I need a minute. You'll talk to Ben about this, your husband, and we'll circle back later. And they face time later that night,

and they said, we're just now coming to you, but we've been talking about this for months. May I talk to their kids about it? Wow. Their kids thought it was just so casual. Like, yes, mom's gonna carry Jessica's baby, of course. And so we started the journey and it was the most natural, unnatural thing

that I've ever been a part of. We talked all day every day because it's one of those friends, you know, that you've known forever and it was just such a cool thing to get to do together. Yeah, I can't imagine doing that for anybody, just the selflessness of her and her husband, and what her body had to go through for Erin and I.

Wow. And so we got to week 34. So like she made it all the way through and went in for the delivery and it was the most beautiful thing to witness. Wow. You guys were both there. We're both there, my husband.

Was there her husband's there? Wow. He's holding her hand. My husband's like, I don't know where to stand. Yeah. Yeah. He's, Abby's like, it's fine. Aaron, stand anywhere you want.

This is your baby. Oh my God. But anyways, in the end, we ended up having to have a C section which she had never had to have for any of her babies. That was so stressful on me because I was like, oh my gosh, now she's going into surgery for my baby. And the doctor was like, hey, it's time.

The baby's positioned in a way that it's not gonna work out. Do you wanna do this? And like she looked at her husband and they were like, yes, of course. So anyways, there are angels. So we have this beautiful one-year-old baby. She's so impressive. Thank you so much.

The greatest gift we will ever have. So, long story short, had several side effects, but St. Jude has studied all the things that have happened to me later in life. And they've charted that, and I'm a part of the St. Jude life study with thousands of former patients. And they're studying what's happening far out in these long-term late effects. And they can look at the current treatments and the protocols that are

happening now and they can say hey maybe we can tweak this so that it's not going to be happening to the patients who are currently going through it. So now it's not just about curing cancer it's about the quality of life but a long run which is really really cool to get to be a part of. The research is incredible, and I think it's also just so incredible that they are freely sharing that. Yeah.

And which seems like a no-brainer, but I didn't realize, like, hospitals don't necessarily share, or not, like, research facilities, like, maybe want to charge for information, or... That's important to us. So nothing is kept at St. Jude. It's all freely shared. And St. Jude has 180 something labs. So the cool thing is St. Jude has benched to bedside research. So what's happening on campus in the labs is able to be taken directly

to the bedside and back and forth. So they can take that information back to the labs to make the tweaks, which is really, really great. And then you're also on the cutting edge of treatments and new drugs, access to new care. So absolutely. That's amazing because it's like, it's like change. It's reach is so huge. But then when you think about the fact that their protocols are being sent globally, it's massive. That's really important too. You know, depending on where you're from, that could change your survival rates, especially with kids who live around the world. And we're trying to make sure that survival rates, you know, get up in all of those countries. It could be a 20% survival rate in other countries,

which is where the survival rate started for St. Jude, but everybody should have the same access. So we're working on sharing research and sharing technology and information with the globe. So that's so cool, because it's like, you could be donating and helping someone locally that you don't even realize. Yes, somebody in your community

and also on the other side of the world. Is there anything you'd want to say to somebody that's thinking about maybe donating to St. Jude or someone that has donated? I don't know, I just feel like people, it's probably cool for people to hear from the actual patients and people that have been through the St. Jude program.

Yeah, I just want people to understand when they make a donation. That donation goes to become the resources, the lifesaving resources. We're talking like the blood transfusions and the chemotherapy said that families don't have to pay for. Yeah. And then also for the research, the research is what's fueling the cures. Yes. And then honestly, it's the cures that are allowing me to get to sit here, like patients are getting to grow up and getting to live lives and become mothers and getting to do anything they want to do. So I just hope they realize the tangible effects that, you know, their $20, $30 has a huge impact.

And that's why it's mean so much that you all are here and offering your voices and your platform and your communities to help out. So. Well, thank you. We're so happy to be here. And I think it's so cool that we have like power and numbers too, because sometimes I forget about like,

wow, we have this amazing community. And like if everyone pitched in a dollar, like we would raise like literally hundreds of thousands If not millions of dollars to help help people in need right so It's just so so cool. We can do as a community together and honestly that's what the founder wanted Danny wanted more people to give you know a dollar it was more about a Large army of people getting in behind the cause yeah,. And so that's really what Saint-Gee was built on. Wow, well, thank you again for being on the podcast.

You have such an incredible story and you share it so eloquently. Yeah, you're so good at speaking, by the way. You're amazing. Thanks for making me feel comfortable. I'm really, really good. You're good, Casqueen. And thank you for being global too.

You're great. We really appreciate your vulnerability and sharing everything. So yes, thank you so much. And hey, we'll see you guys in the next episode Donate if you can donate if you can't we'll have the link in our description and our bio and our show notes We'll make it available. So you guys go donate three two one. He's out dude