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Dr. Richard Schlepphorst vividly remembers being on call one Friday night almost 14 years ago when an extremely sick boy came into his office.

"When you look across the room ... immediately you just know that something catastrophic is going on," said Schlepphorst, a pediatrician and medical director at Quincy Medical Group. "This child is fighting for his life and his world just turned upside down."

The boy had acute lymphocytic leukemia and required treatment at a more specialized treatment center. He was sent to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and he also received follow-up treatment at the hospital's Midwest Affiliate in Peoria.

"He has done very well and is in complete remission," Schlepphorst said.

"St. Jude in Memphis is a worldwide leader in cancer care for children."

That's why Schlepphorst - and at least two other local doctors - encourage area residents to support the St. Jude Quincy to Peoria Run, a relay-style run set for Aug. 4-5. The Quincy run is one of 17 satellite runs of the Memphis to Peoria Run, which has raised $10 million since its inception in 1982. Last year, Quincy runners raised $10,000.

This year, the goal is to recruit 50 runners and raise $25,000.  Because of corporate sponsors, 100 percent of the money raised by runners goes directly toward the treatment and care of children at St. Jude's Memphis and Peoria facilities.

St. Jude, founded in 1962 by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, is one of the largest centers in the U.S. for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other childhood catastrophic diseases, with about 4,700 active patients at any one time.

It is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance and families without insurance are never asked to pay.

The hospital also pays for lodging, food and travel for patients and their families.

"What was so good about St. Jude is they took care of the whole family,"

said Dr. Jim Daniels, who referred a patient to St. Jude about eight years ago. Daniels is a family physician in Quincy affiliated with Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

"They had resources there to help them and they didn't have to worry about the insurance and go through all that. On top of that, they have cutting-edge treatments."

He emphasizes that St. Jude doesn't compete with the Quincy health-care system because the specialized care for pediatric cancer patients isn't available here.

"Most of our systems here in Quincy are designed for the adult patient, not for the child," said Dr. Richard Noble, a family physician at Quincy Medical Group, who referred a 2-year-old boy to St. Jude about 11 years ago.

"There are umpteen tertiary care centers that deal with children's malignancies and cancers of all types. But St. Jude has a system in place to not only take care of the disease process, but a support system.

"The support system allows the family, as well as the patient, to get through the ordeal they have to get through. You know, through the support system, that you're not the only one."

In addition, St. Jude's research benefits children around the world. Its doctors and scientists have pioneered new treatments that have helped improve the overall survival rate for childhood cancer from less than 20 percent to more than 70 percent.

The five-year survival rate for a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, has gone from less than 4 percent in 1962 to more than 90 percent today.

St. Jude shares its research findings through postdoctoral training, residencies, teaching fellowships, international symposiums for physicians, visits and lectures, published papers and publications.

"Much research for cancer care in children has come from St. Jude,"

Schlepphorst said. "Diseases that were once thought fatal and hopeless have impressively positive outcomes with help from St. Jude's advances."

For information about the St. Jude Quincy to Peoria Run, call race director Rick Meehan at (217) 224-7639.