James Ingold

That is an easy question to answer … it is to make the following story possible. Last fall, I ran a 10k in this event just to try and raise some more money for the cause after an already successful Telethon. After I finished running, I was talking to some people when Martha pointed out a woman she had met while I was out running. Upon seeing her, I could tell by her tee-shirt that she was part of one of the fundraising teams participating in honor of a patient. Martha told me the woman wanted to meet me, so I went over to introduce myself. She flashed a big smile as I shook her hand and she said, “I have been wanting to meet you for a long time as I have seen your picture in the St. Jude Pavilion in Memphis and saw the article about you in the Inspire magazine. But even more, I have seen you on Facebook handing out those Champion Donor Awards to people in central Illinois, so I wanted to meet you to let you know the picture of the child on that award is our son, Ty. He will be having his No More Chemo party in January in Memphis.” 

Wow! There are times you can’t help tearing up a bit and that was one of those moments. I looked at her and told her that as chair of the committee in charge of presenting those awards, I had spent many hours looking through hundreds (and maybe thousands) of patient pictures from all over the world to find just the right one for the award. I told her that when I saw the one of Ty (and, of course, I had NO idea this was a child from my own back yard), I looked no further. She told me she took that photo outside of the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis during Ty’s treatments. I told her that we took the picture and changed the background to allow Ty to stand out more and make the background more appealing for our purpose of showing the wonder of St. Jude and the hope they provide for champions like Ty. I told her that people have asked me about the child in the picture when I present them with the award and I have always had to say I had no idea of where he was from and how he was doing. But now, I look forward to presentations so I can tell the recipient that this little champion has fought the battle and won and celebrated such in January with his No More Chemo party!!!

Folks, it doesn’t get any better than that and it is because of the dollars like the ones my supporters have invested over the years (now exceeding $2,445,000) that take a child like Ty from a devastating diagnosis to a cure. The picture above was taken of Ty and me on the day of that Walk/Run. I hope you are able to process and celebrate the importance of your donations … knowing you ARE making it possible for more Ty’s to go from despair, to hope and ultimately to being a healthy young kid!