People Are Amazing
/
Fascinating story I did not know all the details to. A true act of kindness that began a revolution in the fight against childhood cancer. Taken from: “Connected to Goodness,” by David Meltzer.
—Warren [Moon] and I do a lot of work with St. Jude Research Hospital. One of the things that attracted me to St. Jude was the founder, Danny Thomas. The entertainer started St. Jude with the dream that no child should die of cancer.
He began raising the money on airplane flights. He’d get on the microphone, introduce himself, then tell the passengers, “I’m trying to raise $1.2 million dollars with the goal of no more children dying of cancer, and I’d appreciate any donation.” He’d walk up and down the aisle holding out his hat. Later, he began reaching out to his entertainer friends.
Before he started St. Jude, only 4% of children with leukemia survived. Today, that number is over 96%. Fair to say, Danny Thomas created a significant collective belief by, initially, walking up and down an aisle with his individual manifestation.
Danny broke away from the Rat Pack and the big flashy Hollywood stars of the ‘50s and ‘60s to use what source had given him to combat childhood cancer. The hospital also took Danny’s collective energy and belief. My favorite example of abundance is that St. Judes takes the results of its millions of research dollars and posts them immediately for all other hospitals in the world to use to cure cancer. They do not need to be “the hospital that cured cancer.”
They are completely abundant and only want to see cancer cured regardless of who gets it done. There are many other examples of how abundant St. Jude Research hospital is, and how Danny Thomas’ abundance was the spark to shift the paradigm of medical research to cure cancer.
Danny Thomas trusted the Universe that everything will happen in its time, and St. Jude is now the second largest charity in the world with donations approaching $1 billion dollars a year! How fitting that St. Jude is the Patron Saint of the Impossible.
