“I was prompted to become a St. Jude volunteer after my brother was diagnosed with cancer. When it hits close to home, you feel like you want to do something. He’s my baby brother, 14 years younger than I, and after our mother died, he said to me, ‘You’re going to be my mom from now on.’ I take that very seriously, so I resigned from my job to be with him; I didn’t know what lay ahead. He went into remission a year and a half ago, and that's when I applied at St. Jude. It had been very difficult to see the treatment my brother went through with the radiation, so I knew I didn’t want to be in an ICU situation or where the children were being given treatment. I wanted to work in the cafeteria, an area where I could see the families away from all that hospital stuff, just being together. For the past year, I’ve served there one day a week, and it’s been as fulfilling as I thought it would be. Our job is to anticipate the needs of the families, help wherever we can, and make mealtime a good experience for them.
“Sometimes when you interact with the family, they will want to tell you their story. You think you’re just having a casual conversation with ordinary people---asking them where they’re from, how long they’ve been there---and at the very end, several times I’ve had people just break down and say, ‘Thank you so much. God bless you for this.’ I think, ‘What did I do?’ It seems so insignificant just to listen, but it touches them in a special way. When that happened for the first time, within the first month I was there, I realized this is what I wanted to continue doing.
“I am so inspired by the strength and courage of all these people. I have absolutely no room to complain about anything. I never imagined I would meet parents whose first child, just three months old, had already been diagnosed with cancer. How do get cancer when you’re three months old? One mother told me how she was so full of guilt when her child was diagnosed. She said to the doctor, ‘Is it my fault? I tried to eat healthy meals, I had check-ups on a regular basis. There was no hint that there was a problem, and now my baby has cancer.’ Her heart was just aching. She cried and cried and felt so guilty. Her child is in remission now, and she said that this whole ordeal has brought the family closer. She talked about her husband stepping up to take care of the house, do the laundry, shopping, everything. She said, ‘I never knew he had it in him, but we're pulling together and our relationship is better than it ever has been.’ And I’m thinking, Wow, because it can really take a toll and tear the best of marriages apart. It can go either way.
“It’s so wonderful when a child's treatment is completed and you see extended family coming in carrying balloons and wearing matching T-shirts with the child’s name on them. They parade through the cafeteria, and it’s like a family, everyone high-fiving and cheering that child on with ‘No Mo’ Chemo! No Mo’ Chemo!’ Isn’t that a crazy thing to shout? But that’s what you do.”
“Sometimes when you interact with the family, they will want to tell you their story. You think you’re just having a casual conversation with ordinary people---asking them where they’re from, how long they’ve been there---and at the very end, several times I’ve had people just break down and say, ‘Thank you so much. God bless you for this.’ I think, ‘What did I do?’ It seems so insignificant just to listen, but it touches them in a special way. When that happened for the first time, within the first month I was there, I realized this is what I wanted to continue doing.
“I am so inspired by the strength and courage of all these people. I have absolutely no room to complain about anything. I never imagined I would meet parents whose first child, just three months old, had already been diagnosed with cancer. How do get cancer when you’re three months old? One mother told me how she was so full of guilt when her child was diagnosed. She said to the doctor, ‘Is it my fault? I tried to eat healthy meals, I had check-ups on a regular basis. There was no hint that there was a problem, and now my baby has cancer.’ Her heart was just aching. She cried and cried and felt so guilty. Her child is in remission now, and she said that this whole ordeal has brought the family closer. She talked about her husband stepping up to take care of the house, do the laundry, shopping, everything. She said, ‘I never knew he had it in him, but we're pulling together and our relationship is better than it ever has been.’ And I’m thinking, Wow, because it can really take a toll and tear the best of marriages apart. It can go either way.
“It’s so wonderful when a child's treatment is completed and you see extended family coming in carrying balloons and wearing matching T-shirts with the child’s name on them. They parade through the cafeteria, and it’s like a family, everyone high-fiving and cheering that child on with ‘No Mo’ Chemo! No Mo’ Chemo!’ Isn’t that a crazy thing to shout? But that’s what you do.”
Kate Schurch is a volunteer with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place. For information about volunteer opportunities, see the St. Jude Volunteer page.
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