Mother, daughter thank St. Jude for life-saving work to beat cancer

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — In January 2018, Jamie was involved in a local cycling fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She never imagined her own child would soon be a patient there.

“It was not supposed to be my child. It was not supposed to be Bridget,” Jamie said.

She already knew what St. Jude could offer, so she immediately turned to doctors there.

“It was our saving grace,” Jamie said. “It was our opportunity to give her the best care in the world. It was the place that was going to give us hope that would save her life.”

Bridget is now a thriving 13-year-old who loves playing volleyball and wrestling around with her dog. The cancer warrior says her prosthetic leg doesn’t make any difference.

“I think it’s just a part of me now,” she said.

Bone cancer took her left leg, but it didn’t take her fighting spirit.

After her amputation, St. Jude doctors worked quickly to get her feeling like any other kid.

“I was running like three months after it happened,” Bridget said.

“I always get choked up when I say this, but if anything, if anybody ever takes anything away from the support of St. Jude, it’s allowing these kids to be kids again and allowing them to take care of the kids the way that they should be and not what my insurance would do,” Jamie said.

Families never have to worry about insurance or any costs while their kids are patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

St. Jude pays for all medical treatment, housing, food and travel so that parents can focus on helping their child live.

Jamie said Bridget did experience quite a few side effects and blocked out treatments.

“There were nights where she was in so much pain,” Jamie said. “Nerve pain from amputation or vomiting, and sick from chemotherapy.”

Jamie says it’s the supportive doctors, nurses and staff at St. Jude who truly helped them get through the hardest time of their lives. They were at the hospital for nearly a year.

Today, at their house, boxing gloves hang in Bridget’s room.

“We’d take a picture of her with her boxing gloves before every chemo treatment,” Jamie said.

They’re all signed by doctors and nurses — a reminder of all the people at St. Jude who helped save Bridget’s life.

And a reminder that she beat cancer.

As a reminder, your donations to St. Jude through fundraisers like the Dream Home Giveaway help make all this life-saving work possible.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.