Kiara loves spending time with her siblings, Kylie and Jameson. The kids are busy trying to decide what they’ll be for Halloween this year. Kiara uses a wheelchair and would like to incorporate it into her costume. The siblings talk excitedly about trick-or-treating and all of the candy they’ll get.
It’s a world away from Halloween two years ago, when Kiara’s family was worried about her health.
In October 2014, Kiara developed headaches that worsened over time. When Halloween arrived, she had trouble keeping her balance as she trick-or-treated. Her parents took her to the ER, where tests revealed a mass on her brain. Kiara underwent surgery in Arizona to remove the tumor, but knowing Kiara would need continuing treatment, her family turned to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
At St. Jude, Kiara’s tumor was identified as a medulloblastoma. Her treatment included seven rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation therapy. Kiara is now finished with treatment and visits St. Jude for regular checkups. “St. Jude is forever written in our hearts,” said Kiara’s dad. “We love the friendships we made there. We’ll forever spread the message of what a wonderful place St. Jude is.”
Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since we opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.
Help our families focus on their sick child, not medical bills.
When you donate monthly, your gift means families, like Kiara's, never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
Meet more patients
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Meet Londyn
When Londyn’s parents, Anthony and Kascie, learned she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer, they turned to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for her care.
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Meet Janie
Janie has experienced a lot while undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Luckily she has her family — and St. Jude — to crawl with her every step of the way.
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Meet Iris
St. Jude patient Iris has always loved riding horses and wasn't going to let a brain tumor called craniopharyngioma stop her.
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Giving cancer a karate chop
St. Jude patient Zoë is kicking, punching and blocking her way through treatment for a rare brain tumor.
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Meet Charley
Charley led her college fundraising team for St. Jude just months before she became a patient there herself.
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Silly siblings
Griffin likes to play baseball and basketball with his twin brother, Graham, and their older siblings. But things weren’t all fun and games when Griffin’s family found out he had a rare type of cancer. They quickly turned to St. Jude for help.
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Meet Jace
Jace always has an ear-to-ear grin, even the midst of treatment for a spinal tumor.
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Kadie's proposal
Former patient Kadie had her life transformed by cancer. Little did she know that her future would be changed with a proposal at the place that saved her life.
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Braving the unknown
Eight-year-old Stella Grace and her family had been participating in St. Jude events for years. But when she became a patient, St. Jude took on a new meaning.
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A spunky supporter
Before Ellee and her family found themselves at St. Jude, she was raising money, one lap at a time, for kids just like her.
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Gideon is home for the holidays
Two-year-old Gideon will celebrate the holidays at home for the first time, after spending two Christmases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for treatment of stage 4, high-risk neuroblastoma.
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Super trouper
Dawson is a strong, athletic kid. On Super Bowl Sunday in 2016, his parents received news that would change their lives — Dawson had cancer.
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Meet Shekinah
Four-year-old Shekinah is full of cheer and playfulness, even in the midst of the discovery of a brain tumor in early 2017.
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Meet Nathan
In 2016, just 10 days after Nathan was born, he was found to have cancer. Instead of spending Christmas at home, they found themselves at St. Jude.
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Kate's letter to her future self
St. Jude patient Kate recently stepped into the spotlight when she announced a Chicago Bears' second-round draft pick during the NFL draft.
