The Relay for St. Jude Fundraiser is happening Now

If you didn’t know, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. My friends at the venerable Relay podcast network, co-founded by Stephen Hackett and Myke Hurley, hold an event every year for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month; the proceeds go towards research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The 2025 fundraiser is underway. As of this writing, $45,949 has been raised this far.

“Since 2019, the Relay Community has raised over $4 million for St. Jude,” reads Relay’s fundraiser webpage. “Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the U.S. childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80%. St. Jude won’t stop until no child dies from cancer—that’s why St. Jude shares its breakthroughs. Every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save even more children. Join Relay this September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month to help give them more tomorrows.”

Since 2019, Relay has raised $4,109,514.51.

My ties with cancer, as well as with Relay, are snug. I’ve lost multiple people close to me (albeit adults) to cancer in my life, most notably my mother—she died from breast/skin cancer in 1998 when I was just 16. I’ve written about cancer before and how disabling it can be for the patient and others in their orbit. As to Relay, I’ve known Hackett and Hurley for over a decade; I’ve met both in person and consider them friends; Hackett once upon a time was a guest on an early iteration of my old Accessible podcast. Also, I was a guest on an old Relay show called Less Than Or Equal in August 2016. What’s more, Shelly Brisbin, whom I also know and who currently contributes to Six Colors, hosted an accessibility-themed show called Parallel—on which I also guested once—that was part of Relay for awhile before its 93-episode run ended back in June 2024.

Anyway, please give to Relay for St. Jude if you can!