La Salle-Peru St. Jude’s run to take place July 20

When Kelly Schaefer gave birth to her daughter Madison, she couldn’t have imagined that four days later she would be told her new baby girl had neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer that develops in the nerve cells.

“We found out about her cancer at St. Jude,” Schaefer said. “She had a biopsy of her tumor at 7 days old. … It’s a highly treatable cancer when caught under the age of 1 year old.”

Madison began her chemotherapy at 8 days old, Schaefer said. But she didn’t respond as the doctors had hoped, and she had undergone eight rounds of chemotherapy.

“She still had approximately 60% of her tumor remaining in her abdomen and spinal canal,” Schaefer said. “At that point, they told us they had to go in surgically and remove it.”

However, when the surgeons went in, Madison’s tumor was gone.

“St. Jude chalked it up as medicine responded more as a ‘kapow’ [or] ‘bam’ effect of the chemotherapy,” she said.

Twenty-five years later, Madison is cancer free and pursuing her Ph.D. in industrial organizational psychology at the University of Akron in Ohio.

“I don’t even think as a mom I really processed that until much later,” Schaefer said. “Just the power of that. There’s no other organization like [St. Jude], and it benefits kids so that families can have hope and look to a future.”

Since Madison entered remission, the Schaefers have been running for St. Jude through La Salle-Peru, one of the longest-standing satellite runs in the state, Schaefer said.

The mission of the St. Jude Run is to support the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities through community events, raising funds and awareness to help the global mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital everywhere to advance cures and conduct cutting-edge research for childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases, according to its website at stjuderuns.org.

Beginning as a run from Memphis, Tennessee, to Peoria 43 years ago, the St. Jude Run has expanded into “satellite runs” that occur in conjunction, said Schaefer, who serves as coordinator of the La Salle-Peru run. There are about 35 satellite runs that will converge in Peoria with the La Salle-Peru run Saturday, July 20.

Along with the Schaefers celebrating 25 years with the organization, the run also is celebrating its 40th anniversary, raising more than $1.3 million in this time.

This year, there are 44 runners, five drivers, 27 can shakers and four volunteers for the event.

The runners will leave St. Bede Academy at 4:45 a.m. and run relay style for 66 miles to Peoria’s Civic Center at 4 p.m.

“Our team of runners will present our fundraising check live on air at the St. Jude Telethon, which is happening in the Civic Center upon the runners’ arrival,” Schaefer said.

She said money still is coming in, but they hope to raise more than $60,000.

Schaefer said St. Jude does its best to give as much of that money to the hospital, but beyond, it assists families with medical bills.

“I would walk into clinic on clinic days with my pile of bills, and I would just hand them to the secretary each and every week,” Schaefer said. “And I would never get another bill. Just the utter relief of not having to worry about the financial aspect of Madison’s care while we were under such stress of just dealing with saving her life was remarkable.”

Want to donate?

Visit stjuderuns.org, select “Click to donate” and “La Salle-Peru run.”