St. Jude is NOT what most people think they are. Misconceptions people have about them is that they treat pediatric cancer patients free of charge - absolutely not true - they MAY treat them for free if they have no insurance or medicare coverage. They do not accept all patients, they only accept patients that fall under the guidelines, often very narrow guidelines, for clinical trials that they are currently conducting. There are over 200 hospitals that treat childhood cancers nationally and most of them participate in clinical trials when appropriate. If your child is diagnosed with cancer, they have a much bigger chance of being treated at whichever hospital is closest to where you live then they do being treated at St. Jude. People that want to donate to fund clinical trials that ALL children in the U.S. that are being treated for cancer might be able to participate in, should look into the St. Baldrick's Foundation or The Children's Oncology Group Foundation - both of which also provide funding to St. Jude. They could also contact their LOCAL hospital that has a pediatric cancer treatment program to see how they can help locally. Sorry for the rant - this is a topic close to my heart - I lost a child to cancer and he was turned down by St. Jude because they were not conducting a clinical trial for his type of cancer when we applied with them after he went out of remission.

St. Jude is NOT what most people think they are. Misconceptions people have about them is that they treat pediatric cancer patients free of charge - absolutely not true - they MAY treat them for free if they have no insurance or medicare coverage. They do not except all patients, they only except patients that fall under the guidelines, often very narrow guidelines, for clinical trials that they are currently conducting. There are over 200 hospitals that treat childhood cancers nationally and most of them participate in clinical trials when appropriate. If your child is diagnosed with cancer, they have a much bigger chance of being treated at whichever hospital is closest to where you live then they do being treated at St. Jude. People that want to donate to fund clinical trials that ALL children in the U.S. that are being treated for cancer might be able to participate in, should look into the St. Baldrick's Foundation or The Children's Oncology Group Foundation - both of which also provide funding to St. Jude. They could also contact their LOCAL hospital that has a pediatric cancer treatment program to see how they can help locally. Sorry for the rant - this is a topic close to my heart - I lost a child to cancer and he was turned down by St. Jude because they were not conducting a clinical trial for his type of cancer when we applied with them after he went out of remission.