Jennifer Litaker
English Composition 1
Persuasive essay
10/25/18
Do you have a child or family member who has suffered from childhood cancer? Perhaps you
have a friend or co-worker who has? Have you seen the toll it has played on the child and the
family? Don’t you wish there was a magic cure for this catastrophic disease? St. Judes is a
research hospital for childhood cancer, that is greatly advancing in finding cures. With their
research they are coming closer, and closer everyday. Treatment that was designed at St.
Judes has taken the 20% overall childhood cancer survival rate and pushed it up to an 80%
childhood cancer survival rate, since they first opened 50 years ago. Danny Thomas is the
founder of St. Judes hospital and with your help he will make sure no child will be turned away
from treatment based on their ability to pay, religion or race. St Judes runs mostly off of
donations and a lot of their staff are volunteers. They love helping these children so much that
they are mostly working for free. To run St. Judes hospital for one day it costs over one million
dollars. That’s just one day of them keeping their doors open. Sadly, childhood cancer is on the
rise and is the number one cause of death by disease in children. We need to get answers as to
how and why this is happening and what is causing it. The average age a child is
diagnosed with cancer is the age of six. One in two hundred eighty five children in the United
States will be diagnosed with cancer before their 20th birthday. More than three hundred
thousand children are diagnosed with cancer every year. Every three minutes a mother or father
is being told those dreaded words no parent should ever hear, that their child has cancer. More
than 40,000 children in the United States will undergo cancer treatment each year. One in eight
children will die from this horrible disease. With the lack of support in funding it’s delaying this
wonderful research for a cure. I’m going to tell you a story about a sweet little girl named Abbie.
In early January 2016, Abbie started getting horrible headaches and severe body aches that
would not go away no matter what they did. Her mother spent months going back and forth from
pediatricians office to the emergency room to be sent home. The pediatricians just thought she
was just having migraines. Finally late that October and a lot of begging and pleading from her
mom to do more intensive testing, a bone scan and a biopsy confirmed she had ewing
sarcoma. In case you didn’t know it is a form of bone cancer. This type of cancer has a five year
15% survival rate. The testing had found tumors all over Abbie’s skull, spine, shoulder, pelvis
and femur. She had a severe fracture on her lumbar spine from a tumor that had grown there,
making her unable to walk. St. Judes takes on some of the most hardest cases just like Abbie’s
case. People bring their children from all over the United States in desperate need of help. St.
Judes took in Abbie right away and started treatment immediately. Abbies body responded to
treatment very well. Her tumors had shrunk a significant amount and with the help of proton
therapy, Abbie can now walk again, laugh again, and just be a little girl again. Lastly, I ask you
to think of a loved one you hold near and dear to your heart. How would you feel if they
developed a horrible disease just like little Abbie did, with a very low survival rate? Would you
do everything in your power to find them a cure? Would you go to great lengths to get others to
help as well? St. Judes will take any gift of donation you can give. If it’s $5 or $500 they are
extremely grateful. Maybe you want to do better and become a partner in hope for only $30 a
month, with that you get an update on the children you are helping. $30 a month is less than $1
a day, it’s less than what you would pay for a cup of coffee or a soft drink. Wouldn’t it be the
greatest, most satisfying feeling in the world watching children, our future be cured of cancer for
good? Go to St. Jude’s website right now. Don’t wait any longer. Go read their stories and show
your love and support for these children. Help them make a difference today by giving your gift
of hope.
