Leukemia survivor continues helping St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital after 30 years

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Charlie Blanton was 10 years old on January 9, 1992, when a doctor’s words forever changed his life.

“He said that’s leukemia. Acute lymphocytic leukemia. ALL for short. My parents were devastated,” Blanton said. “They couldn’t believe this was happening because six years prior to that, my younger sister also got acute lymphocytic leukemia.”

His family immediately took him to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which was a five-hour drive from his small town of Natchez, Mississippi.

Doctors at St. Jude had saved Charlie’s sister from the same disease. His parents hoped they could also save their son.

“I had high hopes that I was going to get better. Because people at St. Jude, they are amazing people,” Blanton said. “They are miracle workers there.”

Years of treatment

St. Jude was his home away from home for three years — three long years of chemotherapy, surgeries and radiation on his cranial and spine.

Despite the painful memories, Blanton also remembers how he felt being there.

“They treated me like they would treat a kid. They wouldn’t treat you like a patient,” he said. “They would treat you like a person. They do everything they can to make you feel comfortable, and just make sure that your quality of life is better.”

Continuing the mission

More than 30 years later, St. Jude is still part of Charlie’s life. He participates in St. Jude’s long-term follow-up study.

“They invite me to come back year after year to see how I’m doing, to run any kind of medical scans, about cardiovascular, muscular, respiratory, that sort of thing, to see what the effects of the chemo treatment that I’ve received as a child affects me as an adult,” Blanton said.

Researchers collect information from thousands of survivors and siblings to find the long-term effects of treatment. The study is one of the largest and longest-running investigations of its kind.

“Because I don’t want to see anybody else suffer from cancer, from leukemia, from anything else, I want to be able to help these doctors and scientists find treatments and cures so that no one, no child has to go through what I had to,” he said.

Dramatic progress

In 1955, only 4% of children diagnosed with ALL would survive.

St. Jude opened in 1962. Now, the survival rate is 94%.

“What I would like to see St. Jude known for is the organization that eradicated childhood cancer and leukemias,” Blanton said. “I pray. I pray that it will.”

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