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 Eduardo
At 6 months old, Eduardo was referred to St. Jude where he was diagnosed with liver cancer. His treatment included surgery to remove the mass and chemotherapy.
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Meet Thiago
Thiago loves to dance to the rhythm of his dad's djembe. In 2019, he was born with bubble boy disease and was referred to St. Jude where he underwent a new gene therapy to save his life.
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Meet Aaron-James
At age 2, after being diagnosed with sickle cell disease, Aaron-James came to St. Jude where he loves talking to the nurses and doctors.
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Meet Imani
Imani was diagnosed with cancer at 5 weeks old. Her family feared the worst. But at St. Jude, there was hope for her future.
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Meet Leah
Leah is a big sister who loves dresses, shopping, singing and helping in the kitchen. In March 2019, she was referred to St. Jude for acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment, which included a transplant with her mother as her donor.
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Meet Elliott
Elliott is social and loves the outdoors. He also loves St. Jude, where he's being treated for leukemia.
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Meet Dahiralis
Dahiralis is a very active little girl who loves to play, jump and run everywhere. At 3 years of age, she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancerous tumor, and was referred to St. Jude where doctors provided her much-needed treatment and care.
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Meet Melanie
When Melanie was diagnosed with brain cancer and referred to St. Jude, she wasn’t nervous. She was actually looking forward to treatment — chemotherapy, proton therapy and visits from St. Jude therapy dog Huckleberry — because to Melanie, St. Jude meant getting well again.
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Meet Harmony
Harmony is artistic, detailed-oriented and loves to debate. When she noticed something was wrong on her walks to class, no one expected the cause to be a stage four Wilms tumor.
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Meet Marina
Marina is a joyful 2-year-old who loves to laugh and dance with her siblings. She was referred to St. Jude after a white glimmer in her pupil led to her being diagnosed with retinoblastoma, an eye cancer.
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Meet Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn first came to St. Jude at just over a year old when she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. Despite all she’s been through, her smile shines bright.
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Meet Mia
Mia is a friendly, caring child who was referred to St. Jude from her home country of Nicaragua when she was 5 years old. She was diagnosed with anaplastic ependymoma, a malignant tumor in her brain.
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Meet Luis
Like many boys his age, Luis wanted to be a soccer player when he grew up. But then he was diagnosed with cancer. Now he wants to help kids like him.
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Meet Brinley
In 2015, Brinley was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She was cancer free for more than two years when, in 2019, her family learned the cancer had returned.
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Meet Abraham
After a CT scan revealed Abraham had a mass on his brain, identified as a cancerous brain tumor called a medulloblastoma, his family turned to St. Jude for help.