Danny Thomas and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Thanks to the number of commercials broadcast on television soliciting financial support, most people are aware that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital turns no one away because of the inability to pay for services. St. Jude’s does charge those with insurance for payment but it does not deny services because of the inability to meet deductibles, co-payments, and other fees. Because of the refusal to turn away any medically eligible patients it costs about $2.4 million per day to operate the facility, which began because of a promise made by a struggling comedian.
Danny Thomas was trying to make a living as a stand-up comic and actor under the name Amos Jacobs in Detroit when a friend told him about his wife’s miraculous recovery from cancer, which he attributed to the intercession of St. Jude. In turn Thomas began praying to the saint regarded by many as the Patron Saint of Hopeless Cases, promising that if he received help and guidance he would create a shrine in St. Jude’s name. In a short time he moved to Chicago and his career as a nightclub performer began to blossom. One Sunday morning he attended Mass and found in the pew a Novena to St. Jude card, reminding him that he had completely forgotten his promise.
Before long Thomas was in the big time as an entertainer, appearing in the top clubs, movies, and television, eventually appearing in his own television show, Make Room for Daddy in 1953. Thomas began looking for ways to make his promise to St. Jude a reality. One friend of his, Lemuel Diggs, was the Director of Medical Laboratories at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. Another was Anthony Abraham, a Florida based automobile dealership magnate who agreed to provide financial support and business acumen. Thomas also created the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) in 1957. Thomas was a Lebanese-American with roots in Syria.
The ALSAC became and remains the fundraising organization for St. Jude’s. As funds began to gather, slowly but steadily, Thomas, Diggs, and Abraham hit upon the idea of a Children’s Research Hospital, to be located in Memphis, which would be dedicated to the development of treatments for catastrophic illnesses. St. Jude’s was not and is not affiliated with the Catholic Church, nor any other church, despite the fact that its founder, Danny Thomas, was a devout Maronite Catholic.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital opened its doors in 1962. Research at St. Jude’s has changed the way many childhood diseases are treated and increased survival rates dramatically. In 1962 the survival rate for the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was 4%. Today it is 94%. The overall survival rate for childhood cancers has increased from 20% in 1962 to 80% in 2015. St. Jude’s staff is called upon for consultation from childhood cancer treatment centers and researchers from around the world. And no child is ever turned away because they can’t pay for care.