I Is For Imagine – The ABCs Of Cancer
When you were a little kid, what did you imagine? Did you daydream about becoming a fireman or a ballerina? Some children have different dreams. Some of them simply want to live long enough to grow up.
Catastrophic childhood diseases. You hear that term a lot when you visit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That’s because every child who is at the Memphis campus has one of those horrible diseases, like one of the many strains of cancer that eats at them from the inside out.
But strangely enough, St. Jude isn’t a sad place. The hospital has been decorated by the kids who are patients there. In the pre-teen section of the hospital, it looks like a giant aquarium, painted in hues of blue where natural light filters in and dapples the whole place with sunlight. Other places are painted like gardens where zoo animals poke their heads through the foliage. Everywhere patients look, there is something wondrous to behold and fuel their imaginations.
As the author of “I Is For Imagine” wrote, the patients are encouraged to imagine life without cancer, or whichever disease they may be battling. The St. Jude staff encourages its patients to use their imaginations because they recognize just how powerful a tool it can be.
Won’t you help fuel a St. Jude kid’s imagination by becoming a Partner In Hope? Your donation will go a long way to ensuring they too can make ballerina dreams and firefighter plans!