When Joshua Morales was 2 years old, he began running a high fever, which doctors contributed to a throat infection. “Joshua was a very healthy and active child. He liked to run like every kid his age,” said his mother Mayra. “But after awhile, he just wanted to sleep all of the time.”
In August of 2003, doctors told the family that Joshua had a very serious problem with his blood. “His skin turned yellow and his lips were very pale,” his mother remembers. The doctors in Guadalajara, Jalisco, performed a bone marrow aspirate to determine the cause. The results were devastating: Joshua was found to have leukemia. The doctors asked the family for $500,000 to perform a bone marrow transplant in the United States; without it, they said, Joshua would not live more than a month.
Desperate to find a way to save their child’s life, Joshua’s parents discovered information about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Joshua was referred to St. Jude where the family was received with open arms. Doctors there diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, and Joshua began a three-year chemotherapy regimen at no cost to the family.
To the Morales family, St. Jude is synonymous with “life.” Please send your contribution now and help save the lives innocent children like Joshua.
Created by St Jude Patients