PEORIA, Ill. — The St. Jude Memphis to Peoria runners will be loading up the RVs Tuesday morning, headed south to the nation’s top children’s research hospital.
St. Jude Runs Co-Founder Mike McCoy told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show”, when they started 40 years ago, doctors told him he’d never see St. Jude patients joining the run in his lifetime.
“I think this year, we have 12 former patients that are doing parts of the runs. And, they’ve been doing it for about 15 years,” McCoy said.
When the St. Jude Memphis to Peoria Run began, the cancer cure rate at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was about 20%. Now, the cure rate is closing in on 90%, McCoy said.
No child’s family ever pays for medical treatment at St. Jude.
“That’s huge…especially with today’s medical costs. To get the #1 treatment in child cancer care the world for free,” McCoy said.
About 130 runners will make the trip back to Peoria from Memphis, Tennessee, with some runners still choosing to run virtually like last year.
“We’re going to be the first people that are allowed to go inside the St. Jude campus since last March,” McCoy said.
McCoy said although they won’t be admitted to any of the buildings to protect the patients, the Memphis to Peoria runners will start the run back home through the St. Jude campus.
The Peoria runners will be back in town Saturday, when they will meet up with teams of satellite runners leading up to the annual St. Jude telethon on news partner WEEK-25 News.
Learn how you can contribute to the St. Jude Runs HERE.
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