Paying it forward

Slade Anderson will turn 9 on May 15.

With his party theme already planned out, there’s little for him to do but sit back and wait for the date. His smile, complete with a set of braces, lights up when he talks about the event.

“It’s going to be a backwards party,” he said as he sat in one of the oversized purple chairs atop the Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook balcony. “Everyone will have to wear everything backwards — their shirt, their pants.”

Confidence gushed out of Slade, who sat back relaxed, like being interviewed was his second nature. His parents, Emily and Josh Anderson, sat nearby and watched him. They know they have time to enjoy their son — time that just a few years ago, was difficult to measure. 

After nearly three years of battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia  — a form of blood cancer — Slade completed his last chemotherapy treatment June 9, 2015, according to Emily Anderson. Sitting across from her son, the dates came easily to her. She can pinpoint the exact date of various milestones over the course of the past three years, etched permanently in her memory.

Saturday, May 7, will be a happy date for the family. Slade, along with two other local St. Jude patients, Sophia Schefano and Cole Tanner, will be honored at the St. Jude Field of Dreams fundraising event in the ballroom of the Grand Bohemian. Together with the three other families, the Andersons will do their part to help raise funds for the research hospital that saved their child’s life.

A ‘coincidence’

Josh Anderson, who never stopped smiling while he talked about his son, said ending up at St. Jude three years ago was little more than a coincidence. The family was in the hospital’s vicinity in Memphis, Tennessee, visiting Emily Anderson’s family for Thanksgiving. 

It all began as planned, Emily Anderson said, until a short, out-of-state vacation weekend turned into a much longer stay. 

While at his grandparents’ house, Slade complained of an earache. Believing it was something that could be cured with a quick dose of medicine, Emily Anderson drove Slade to the local outpatient care facility.

“ I thought it was best to get it seen about right away,” she said, “otherwise I feared the whole weekend would be miserable for him with an untreated ear infection.”

As the doctor examined Slade, Emily Anderson watched as the doctor shifted his attention away from Slade’s ears and down his body. The doctor’s attention focused on Slade’s belly, which looked unusually swollen.

“We’ll need to do further testing,” Emily Anderson remembers the doctor saying.

The doctor, who also worked as a regular at St. Jude, immediately recognized Slade’s less noticeable symptoms. When the blood work came back, the results confirmed the doctor’s suspicions.  Over Thanksgiving weekend 2012, Slade, then 6 years old, was diagnosed with ALL.

Without a minute to waste, an ambulance transported Slade and Emily Anderson to St. Jude where he remained for eight full weeks.

“We were close to the hospital by chance,” Josh Anderson said. 

Asked about his time at St. Jude, Slade said the feeling is hard to explain. Despite his age, Slade is acutely aware of what his little body already has gone through and is mindful of what his journey might mean to other children.

“Everyone there is like family,” Slade said. “The medicine is free; the doctors will take care of everyone regardless of where they are from.”

Emily Anderson mirrored her young son’s thoughts.

“The research they do at St. Jude benefits children around the world,” she said. 

Throughout Slade’s illness, Emily said she found comfort in simply being at St. Jude. The family found its “new normal” by planning around Slade’s routine, she said. Josh and Emily would take turns staying home with their two daughters, Louise and Elizabeth, sometimes taking them to Memphis to see their big brother. Toward the end of his treatment when Slade became seriously ill, Emily said the drive to Memphis was exactly what the family needed.

“I knew that once I got to St. Jude I could relax,” she said. “Everything would be OK.”

According to its website, treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since it opened more than 50 years ago. The hospital creates more clinical trials for cancer than any other children’s hospital and turns laboratory discoveries into lifesaving treatments. 

Though it doesn’t come cheaply to operate — the daily operating cost for St. Jude is $2 million, which is primarily covered by individual contributors — families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food.

Picking up the pieces 

As the family traveled back and forth to Memphis, Emily Anderson said it was the Mountain Brook community that helped keep everything together. In their absence, she said, the community had shown an outpouring of support.

“People have really stepped up,” Emily Anderson said. “My girlfriends would call me up all the time and ask if they could help. They brought over dinners, got the girls to ballet — they helped us pick up the pieces.”

At Crestline Elementary, the Andersons’ school, Slade’s classmates were encouraged to wear their “Team Slade” T-shirts every Friday.

The love and support for Slade quickly spread through the community, inspiring complete strangers — even companies — to pledge their encouragement.

Taco Mama named a burrito after him.

Sugar, Mobley & Sons and the Pants Store all sold “Team Slade” T-shirts.

Eventually, that support flowed outward, across the borders of Mountain Brook, the state of Alabama and even the nation.

According to Emily Anderson, Slade received a letter of encouragement from George W. Bush, signed footballs from Eli Manning, Nick Saban, Johnny Manziel, Drew Brees and a happy birthday tweet from AJ McCarron.

Slade has also been featured in a St. Jude commercial with Marlo Thomas.

To their surprise, the family received an American flag flown over Afghanistan by a soldier who had heard of Slade’s journey.

Enjoying life

With treatment in his rearview mirror, Slade didn’t waste time getting back into the adventures of being a little boy. This past fall, much to his delight, Slade played tackle football. He can tell you all about playing rosters and statistics for his two favorite teams: The Alabama Crimson Tide and the New Orleans Saints. Be careful, though, or he might ask you some trivia questions. 

He also played baseball and basketball this year and used his sister Louise — or Weezie as she is known among family — as a basketball practice partner. 

“Weezie is his little minion,” Emily Anderson said of the duo. “She does whatever he tells her to do.”

As Slade and Weezie laughed atop the Grand Bohemian, joking among themselves as brother and sister, Emily Anderson said her family will forever be indebted not only to their community for all its support, but to St. Jude as well. 

“We hope the St. Jude Field of Dreams event grows more and more each year,” she said. “So other families can receive the same type of care we did.

Event details 

Last year, the inaugural St. Jude Field of Dreams event helped raise $101,094 to benefit the Tennessee-based children’s research hospital through a silent auction and donations. More than 300 people attended the event, which took place at Regions Field. 

This year, Field of Dreams will be Saturday, May 7, at 6:30 p.m. The event is sponsored by Merrill Lynch and will once again feature auction items including event tickets, travel packages, gift certificates and autographed memorabilia. 

Tickets are on sale now for $125 per person or $200 per couple. Group tickets and sponsorship opportunities are also available. 

Tickets to the event are available at stjude.org/fieldofdreams.