By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Donors to the Radio Bloomington St. Jude Radiothon are on pace to top last year’s total of $86,346 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and its regional sites, including Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria.
Tammy Ummel of Hudson told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin when her daughter Megan was diagnosed with a brain tumor, she looked all over the country for the best place for her daughter to receive care.
PODCAST: Listen to Tammy Ummel’s interview with Scott Laughlin on WJBC.
“Everyone one of the (medical facilities) would send me back to say St. Jude is part of a group that shares their research,” Ummel said. “There is no place when her survival rate would be better at this point in time.”
Ummel said while Megan only lived nine months after the day of her diagnosis, she encourages people to give to improve survival rates, which have jumped from 20 percent to 80 percent in the 54 years since St. Jude was founded.
“We can’t change what happened to Megan, all we can do and what we’ve done for the 14 years since she passed is devote our time and our life to tell people about St. Jude and the great work that they do,” Ummel said.
Ummel added she was grateful that St. Jude took everything off her hands, including the need to pay for her daughter’s care.
“From the moment we walked in the door, (they) said ‘You can put that phone number away. Give it to me and that’s the last person you will be calling,’ ” Ummel said. “We never saw a bill from them.”
St. Jude facilities cost $2 million per day to operate. Friday marks the second and final day of the radiothon. You can become a Partner in Hope by calling 1-800-374-4995.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
