St. Jude Children's Hospital making a difference in fight against childhood cancer



MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a cause that is important to all of us.

Q13 Cares is teaming up with St. Jude Children's Hospital to make a difference in the fight against childhood cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

Together, we are raising money for research and treatments. One of those ways is through the St. Jude Showplace Dream Home.

The multi-million dollar home is under construction in Bellevue and will eventually be sold with proceeds going to the research hospital.

Q13 FOX traveled to Memphis to learn more about the work that St. Jude does every day to benefit children right here at home.

For Kiara Gridrod, playing at the park will have to wait. Her childhood is on hold while she fights the ultimate battle. At just 6-years-old, she has cancer.

"No one could tell you what you should do," said father Jeremiah Gridrod. "We just decided we would do whatever we had to in life to get her the best."

They found St. Jude where Kiara is now getting top of the line treatment for medulloblastoma, a type of pediatric brain cancer. Thousands of children have been treated there, including many from the northwest.

Kiara is part of a clinical trial in one of their research programs.

Since actor Danny Thomas founded St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in 1962, overall childhood cancer survival rates have gone from 20 to 80-percent.

Research is funded almost entirely through donations, and breakthroughs are shared with hospitals and doctors all over the world.

Families get top of the line care and never receive a bill. Everything from treatment to housing, travel and food is all covered.

By lightening the load on families and concentrating on care, St. Jude Children's Hospital gets patients like Kiara back to being kids again.