At the beginning of 2016, as Seth began his final semester of college in Louisiana, he was in the midst of interviewing for medical school. A few states away in Tennessee, 17-year-old Reese was busy training for his school’s upcoming baseball tryouts. Although they didn’t know each other at the time, they would soon be connected by a life-changing diagnosis.
As the year progressed, Seth developed a nagging pain in his right leg. Believing he could have a stress fracture, he visited an orthopedic surgeon near his hometown. That’s when an MRI confirmed that Seth suffered from osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. Seth was immediately referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where he would begin a treatment plan that included chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumor.
Just a few weeks later, Reese began experiencing similar symptoms. Being in the middle of baseball tryouts, he powered through the pain until it became unbearable. After a scan initially revealed a mass, he and his family traveled to St. Jude, where a diagnosis of osteosarcoma was confirmed.
At St. Jude, Seth and Reese soon met and developed a friendship that would have a lasting impact for not only themselves, but several fellow patients. Because Seth arrived a few weeks before, he was able to answer some questions for Reese and provide insight about the treatment process. Soon after, Reese was able to reach out to other osteosarcoma patients and do the same. “To be able to help someone who hasn’t gone through treatment yet, it means a lot,” said Reese. “It’s pretty special.”
St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate for childhood cancer from less than 20% when we first opened our doors to more than 80% today. We won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.
“At St. Jude, they made me feel at home right away,” said Seth at the time. “They really look at the whole picture and made this difficult part of my life a lot more manageable.”
Today, Reese is close to finishing treatment and will start his senior year of high school in the fall. Meanwhile, Seth returned home and came back to St. Jude for regular checkups.
“I plan to start med school in the fall,” he said. “I want to become a doctor and come back to work for St. Jude.”
Editor's note: We regret to inform you that Seth passed away in October 2018.
Help our families focus on their sick child, not medical bills.
When you donate monthly, your gift means families 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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Meet Elliott
Elliott is social and loves the outdoors. He also loves St. Jude, where he's being treated for leukemia.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.