14 Facts You Might Not Know About St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Did you know that it costs St. Jude Children's Research Hospital $2 million each day to operate? Or that St. Jude has the best survival rates for some of the most deadly childhood cancers in the world?

On Thursday and Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Lonestar 99.5 FM is helping St. Jude fight childhood cancer with a radiothon that benefits the hospital. Listeners can call 1-800-795-1800 to donate and become a Partner in Hope.

Here are 14 facts about St. Jude Children's Research Hospital that you may not know.

1. St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. 
2. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. 
3. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood survival rate from 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80 percent today. 
4. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent in the next decade. 
5. St. Jude has increased the survival rates for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (or ALL) from 4 percent before opening in 1962 to 94 percent today. 
6. St. Jude is where doctors often send their toughest cases, because St. Jude has the world’s best survival rates for some of the most aggressive forms of childhood cancers. 
7. St. Jude creates more clinical trials for cancer than any other children’s hospital and turns laboratory discoveries into lifesaving treatments that benefit patients – every day. 
8. St. Jude freely shares its groundbreaking discoveries, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists can use that knowledge to save thousands more children around the world. 
9. The daily operating cost for St. Jude is $2 million, which is primarily covered by individual contributors. 
10. St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world. 
11. On average, 7,800 active patients visit the hospital each year, most of whom are treated on an outpatient basis. 
12. St. Jude maintains 78 inpatient beds and treats upwards of 260 patients each day. 
13. St. Jude is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza Viruses in Animals and Birds. 
14. St. Jude is the national coordinating center for the National Cancer Institute-funded Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and the Children's Cancer Survivor Study. St. Jude also is the coordinating center for a national study of sickle cell disease treatment funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.