Cole Swindell, Maddie & Tae and More Get Real About Cancer for St. Jude
Cancer is personal for some of country music's biggest stars and newcomers. Cole Swindell, Maddie + Tae, Trent Harmon and more all recently opened up about how cancer has touched their lives. This moving video shows how research done at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital helps more than just the kids at St. Jude.
Chase Bryant's emotional story of his brother's battle with leukemia underlines the devastation of the disease. Yes, the medical battle comes first, but afterward, families are too often left with bills they're paying for decades. That's not the case at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. No family ever receives a bill for care or medicine, as founder Danny Thomas believed parents should only have to worry about their son or daughter's health and comfort.
Within the last year, both members of Maddie + Tae were touched by cancer. Tae Dye's boyfriend's mother lost her battle in 2016, while Maddie Marlow reveals she lost a grandfather to cancer. Love and Theft's Eric Gunderson recalls a friend that died in middle school. Harmon shares that cancer runs rampant in his family.
Yet the sadness of this compilation video turns a corner when the stars begin talking about what they saw during their tour of St. Jude. "And I'd really like for my family to come to St. Jude because you don't say 'cancer' as a bad 'C-Word'," Harmon says during a media session at Country Cares Seminar at St. Jude, before Marlow talks about the fight she's witnessed first hand.
See Photos From Country Cares 2017 at St. Jude
At the end, ALSAC (the fundraising arm of St. Jude) CEO Rick Shadyac talks about how St. Jude freely shares their research and findings to assist hospitals worldwide. A donation to St. Jude isn't just a donation to help one child or family in need. It's insurance, as if cancer touches you one day it's likely a course of treatment will come from this first-class research facility.
On Feb. 16-17, Taste of Country will join 15 Townsquare Media stations in support of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This two-day web and radiothon aims to raise money and awareness for the world class research and treatment facility in Memphis, Tenn. Now in its fourth year, this collaborative effort has raised nearly $3.9 million. Country radio has helped raise more than $700 million during 27 years worth of Country Cares radiothons. The mission is simple: raise money, save lives.
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