This Lunar New Year, send good fortune to the kids of St. Jude

Find Lunar New Year gift ideas, make a donation or start your own fundraiser to help kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases

Donate Now Explore Other Ways To Support

Learn about Lunar New Year >

 
 

The Year of the Snake

Together with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Year of the Snake in 2025 promises new beginnings, a brighter hope for the future and opportunities to lift all of our communities together as one.

 
A drawing of a yellow and red spotted snake in the shape of 2025 by St. Jude survivor Adrienne.

Art by St. Jude survivor Adrienne

 
 

Generosity is lifesaving:

Your gift helps ensure our mission

Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — so families can focus on helping their child live.

 
An illustration of a chart or graph to represent increased survival rates

St. Jude has achieved a 94% survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer, up from 4% in 1962. Learn more >

 
 
An illustration of an IV bag.

St. Jude is leading research to improve chemotherapy safety and effectiveness for pediatric patients of East Asian descent affected by ALL.

 
 
An illustration of a microscope to represent research

St. Jude is developing new, improved treatments for children with cancer, creating more clinical trials for cancer than any other children’s hospital.

 
 
An illustration of earth to represent St. Jude Global.

Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped raise the survival rate for children with cancer in the United States, where 4 out of 5 children survive cancer. In many countries, however, 1 out of 5 children who develop cancer will survive. We won’t stop until no child dies from cancer, no matter where they live. Learn more about the St. Jude Global initiative >

 
 
 
St. Jude Dr. Ching-Hon Pui with St. Jude patient Micah

St. Jude Ching-Hon Pui, MD, with St. Jude patient Micah

 

My lifelong passion is to take care of children with leukemia ... my work is far from over.

Ching-Hon Pui, MD
Chair, St. Jude Department of Oncology

 

Meet Ching-Hon Pui, MD

Lunar New Year is a time to touch lives — like Dr. Pui.

In 1977, the cure rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) — the most common pediatric cancer — was only 40%.  Pui has played a central role in developing a series of clinical trials that raised survival rates of ALL to 94% at St. Jude today. Pui's research has also dramatically increased access to pediatric cancer care for children in China. 

Read more about Dr. Pui's global work >

 
 
red and gold paper decorations
red and gold paper decorations

Generosity is joyful:

Ways to support St. Jude kids during Lunar New Year

 
 
Digital Lunar New Year card on iPhone and printedLunar New Year with envelope on table top.

Send an e-card or a mail card for Lunar New Year.

Dedicate a donation

Dedicate a donation and send a Lunar New Year mail card or e-card to the person of your choosing.

Dedicate a Donation

 
St. Jude patient Vietnam holds a photo of himself from when he was undergoing treatment.

St. Jude patient Vietnam holds a photo of himself from when he was undergoing treatment.

Send a free virtual card to patients

Share messages of good fortune with the kids of St. Jude by sending a virtual card.

Send a Virtual Card

 
 
Patient Maelin-Kate on a golf course holding a golf club and wearing a red St. Jude t-shirt

St. Jude patient Maelin-Kate

Create your own fundraiser

Use this year's Lunar New Year to make an impact on the kids of St. Jude.

Create a Fundraiser

 
St. Jude Dragon Plush which is a stuffed purple dragon with white wings and horns.

Shop for Lunar New Year gifts in the St. Jude Gift Shop

Celebrate friends and family this Lunar New Year with a gift from our gift shop. All purchases benefit the kids of St. Jude. 

Shop the Gift Shop

 
 
St. Jude patient Tam is surrounded by members of his family.

St. Jude patient Tam and his family

 

There have been no setbacks, no relapses. All has been gravy.

St. Jude patient Tam's father

 

Meet St. Jude patient Tam

Tam was 4 years old when he was diagnosed with a fast-growing cancerous brain tumor. He underwent surgery and rehab in his home state before being referred to St. Jude for treatment.

Tam's father said St. Jude soon became a second home. Tam received treatment before going home less than a year later in 2018. He returns to St. Jude for regular checkups every year.

Read more about Tam >

 
 

Explore what your Lunar New Year donations can do

  1. Patient meals

    Your $50 gift could provide two days of meals to a patient.*

    Donate $50

     
     

  2. Medical teaching dolls

    Your $75 gift could help provide medical teaching dolls for St. Jude patients. Child Life Specialists use dolls and real medical equipment to teach patients about procedures to make them less intimidating.*

    Donate $75

     
     

  3. A red wagon

    Your $100 gift could help provide a red wagon, which is the preferred mode of travel through the halls of the hospital for our youngest patients.*

    Donate $100

     
     

  4. Family meals

    Your $250 gift could help provide five days of meals for a St. Jude patient and their guardian. St. Jude provides patients and their families breakfast, lunch and dinner in Kay Kafe, the hospital’s cafeteria.*

    Donate $250

     
     

*When you make a donation using this information, your donation will be used to provide breakthrough research, treatment and cures.  Items listed here are representative of services and supplies that are part of the treatment and care of children at St. Jude. Read more about approximated costs.

 
 
St. Jude patient Misheel holds a heart-shaped baloon.

St. Jude patient Misheel 

 

St. Jude means a lot to us, it has become a loving family.

St. Jude patient Misheel's mother

 

Meet St. Jude patient Misheel

Misheel was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 2023. Despite her own diagnosis, she has refused to let her illness keep her from spreading joy to others.

“She is trying her best to show kids that things can happen, but there are always good ways to go through it,” said her mother, Undrakh.

Read more about Misheel >

 
 
red and gold paper decoration

Your Lunar New Year gift can make a difference

Because of your support, we can provide children with cutting-edge treatments not covered by insurance, at no cost to families. Unlike other hospitals, the majority of funding for St. Jude comes from generous donors. Join us and be part of our mission to save more lives.

Donate Now Explore Other Ways To Support

 
 

Lunar New Year FAQs:

 

  1. Lunar New Year, which is also called Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, celebrates the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. It is the most important holiday of the year for those who observe and is widely celebrated by many of the East and Southeast Asian population all over the world. Lunar New Year is referred to as Chinese New Year in China, Tết (or Tết Nguyên Đán) in Vietnam, and Seollal in Korea. 

  2. In 2025, Lunar New Year begins on Jan. 29 and ends on Feb. 4 with the Lantern Festival on February 24. Lunar New Year begins on the new moon, which typically appears at the end of January to the end of February. Lunar New Year celebrations last just over two weeks and end on Lantern Festival, which occurs on the 15th day of the first lunar month. 

  3. The year 2025 is the Year of the Snake. As a symbol of wisdom and transformation in the Chinese lunar calendar, the Snake offers a time of personal growth and change opportunities

    • New Year’s Eve dinner, or a reunion dinner when all family members gather, is the most important part of the celebration. Traditional feasts include chicken, fish, duck, and pork dishes.
    • Drums and fireworks are used to ward off evil spirits with loud noises.
    • Red envelopes filled with money are given by married adults to children to bring good wishes and luck for the new year ahead.
    • Cleaning before the New Year gets rid of the bad luck and welcomes good luck.
    • Decorations like red lanterns, spring couplets, and paper cuttings are fashioned in red, a symbolic color for good fortune.
 
 
background art by St. Jude patient Tam

You may also be interested in:

 
St. Jude patient Misheel smiling with arms stretched and balloon flowers falling down around her.

St Jude patient Misheel

Meet Misheel

Misheel walked down the stairs of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital sporting a bright smile as she carried a bag bursting with colorful balloon figures that she created to distribute to other patients, doctors and nurses.

Despite her own battle with brain cancer, Misheel, 11, has refused to let her illness keep her from spreading joy to others. “She is trying her best to show kids that things can happen, but there are always good ways to go through it,” said her mother, Undrakh.

Misheel was diagnosed in July 2023 after experiencing several months of insatiable thirst and repeated visits to the bathroom, her mother said.

“She wasn’t sleeping well during the night; she was so tired during the day,” she recalled.

A doctor’s visit and tests revealed tumors in her brain. Undrakh, who was born in Mongolia, said she couldn’t believe it. “In my country, people die from cancer,” she said. “Cancer was a really hard word to hear.”

Misheel was referred to St. Jude, where she has received treatment.

“St. Jude means a lot to us, it has become a loving family,” said Undrakh, who said she was a St. Jude monthly donor prior to her daughter’s diagnosis.

Since she became a patient of St. Jude, Misheel not only learned to master balloon twisting, but now is learning, with the help of YouTube, to be a ventriloquist. Misheel, though, aspires to be a doctor or a nurse, just like those at St. Jude.

St. Jude patient Misheel sitting among ballooon animals.

St Jude patient Misheel

 
St. Jude patient Misheel and her parents flex their arm muscles.

St Jude patient Misheel with her parents
St. Jude patient Tam smiling while leaning against a photo of himself while in treatment.

St Jude patient Tam with a photo of himself while in treatment

Meet Tam

Tam was 4 years old when he started to feel sick in 2017. It started with headaches and lethargy. Then he started to vomit frequently. He eventually couldn’t keep fluids down.

After undergoing a CT scan, Tam was diagnosed with anaplastic ependymoma, a fast-growing cancerous brain tumor. Tam underwent surgery to remove the tumor and three weeks of rehabilitation in his home state of California.

“Tam had to learn to walk and sit up to eat. He had to get all that back,” recalled his dad, Tien.

Doctors told Tam’s parents that further treatment required radiation therapy. They referred Tam to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which is home to the world’s first proton therapy center solely for children. Proton therapy lets doctors aim high-dose radiation at cancer cells and spare healthy cells. It is one of the most advanced and precise forms of radiation treatment today.

“We thought it was a perfect scenario for our son, and we felt that this was basically from God, and it was perfect,” Tien said.

Tien didn’t know much about St. Jude, but his wife had donated to the research hospital many years earlier after she arrived from Taiwan to attend graduate school in New York. He said St. Jude soon became a second home. Tam received radiation treatment and chemotherapy before going home less than a year later in 2018. He returns to St. Jude for regular checkups every year.

“There have been no setbacks, no relapses. All has been gravy,” Tien said.

Tam, the oldest of four and the only boy, enjoys arts and crafts, knitting, sewing and cooking. Tam wants to own a business one day.

St. Jude patient Tam in 2019 while undergoing treatment sitting on a hospital bed smiling.

St Jude patient Tam in 2019 while going through treatment
St. Jude patient Tam with his family.

St Jude patient Tam with his family

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