Hello Family and Friends,
This year will be my fifth year participating in the St. Jude Motorcycle Ride with my family. As many if you know St. Jude means a lot to me and my family and that my reason for fundraising is a bit different then just your typical rider.
My story started September 1997 when I was only 2 and a half years old and our father, Howard E. Strube Jr, had died in the line of duty as a firefighter 19 days prior to my diagnosis. I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and had a white blood count over 500,000. I had to go through intense chemo and countless other treatments while I was at St. Jude. But my mom and I weren’t the only two that were impacted from my diagnosis. I have two older twin brothers that had to stay home not knowing what was going on only from what family was able to tell them and when they got to visit me at St. Jude. Our family had to be strong and stick together in all of this. I had four years of treatment once I was at St. Jude but in that treatment I relapsed once and had to have radiation to the central nervous system. After I relapsed I saw my mother crying in the waiting room and I went up to her not really knowing what was going on and told her “Mom it’s just more medicine.” My mom is an amazing woman and stuck it out to make sure that her family was safe even after everything she has been through. In November of 2000 I was put back into remission and have been cancer free since then. This year will be 24 years of remission!!
A little bit of an update on my life today and how St. Jude is still making a difference even after I’m no longer an active patient. In 2022 I was asked to come back to St. Jude for more studies to see what the effects of treatment had on me as a kid. These studies help St. Jude determine safer treatments for kids so that they don’t have life long effects when they get older. Lucky for me I don’t have an side affects from my treatment but for some kids they aren’t so lucky. Just recently I wrapped up an at home study that was based in heart health, this study required me to work out three days a week fir twenty weeks with a heart monitor. This study helps them to see if there are any heart issues that could have come from treatment.
As for life it has been treating me well, I am still working for Getz Fire Equipment installing fire alarm systems and loving what I do everyday. In the last year a new furry family member was added, went on vacation to North Carolina with the dogs, been busy doing house work, and just living the best healthy life that I can. Plans for this year are to go back out to North Carolina for vacation and to see one of my closest’s friends.
So with all of that being said any donation will be taken for the kids of St. Jude and their families. Danny Thomas has always been a big role model while going through treatment and also to this day. For once he said "No Child Should Die in the Dawn of Life."
God Bless,
Kyle Strube