St. Jude Dream Home Benefits Green Country Families

Time is running out to buy your raffle ticket for the St. Jude Dream Home giveaway. The money raised will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. But as News on 6 reporter Jennifer

Tuesday, October 10th 2006, 2:39 pm

By: News On 6

Time is running out to buy your raffle ticket for the St. Jude Dream Home giveaway. The money raised will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. But as News on 6 reporter Jennifer Loren explains, the hospital is saving lives every day and many of them are from right here in Green Country.

Valeria Hamilton is just 3 years old. But already her life has been more difficult than most of ours. Last year, her father took her to the hospital in Claremore with a hurt ankle, but learned it was something much worse. Michael Hamilton: "I thought it was a sprained ankle or something. She was limping. They said it was cancer."

Valeria was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer within her nervous tissue. "Went you know for an X-ray and it had these little lesions. It was just unreal." Hamilton's doctors immediately referred them to St. Jude in Memphis.

â€œThe research here at St. Jude has significantly contributed to the prognosis of children with Neuroblastoma." Dr. Clinton Stewart and his research team work around the clock just downstairs from Valeria's hospital room. They're working on ways to cure her kind of cancer and make her feel better. "One of the things that we're trying to do is, not only help children with Neuroblastoma live longer, but also live with a better quality of life."

Having everything Valeria needs right here and right now is something her father says is simply magical and he's seeing results. Michael Hamilton: "I know that the tumors are vanishing, you know, dissolving or whatever, and you know there's a good chance that she could make it."

But itâ€™s also the quality of life for mom and dad when they're at St. Jude that adds to the greatness of this hospital. "Itâ€™s been a hard year going through this. But I think we're in a good place."

You can buy a $100 raffle ticket for your chance to win the $400,000 Dream Home in Bixby. But hurry, time is running out! The home will be given away October 29th.