This Menomonee Falls mom is thankful St. Jude saved her son. Now, she is paying it forward.

After Menomonee Falls resident Colleen Kelley learned her 17-month son Colton's brain tumor was cancerous, her next step was how to save Colton.

The tricky part was Colton had a kind of tumor typically found in adult males, not infants. When St. Jude Children's Research Hospital learned of the condition from the staff at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, St. Jude was "extremely intrigued and offered us to come down to Memphis for a trial treatment program," said Kelley. It would be for a six-month, six-round of chemo treatment.

"A trial," Kelley repeated. No way, she said. "I do not want my son to be a guinea pig."

She said, at the time, she did not know much about St. Jude.

But after consulting with a healthcare provider who said, "It's St. Jude; you have to go," she knew she needed to decide quickly, because St. Jude had given her a timeline of hours to decide. Her next question was, How can I care for my live-in mother (Patricia Kelley) who has bladder cancer?

"My mom said, 'I am 80; I had a good life. You go save your son,'" recalled Kelley. Kelley agreed, flew to Nashville and entered St. Jude's front doors.

"I was scared s---less," she said.

After six months of intense treatment, Colton has been cancer free since. Now, seven years later, the Kelley family spends countless hours fundraising for St. Jude because they saved Colton's life.

For the past four years, Kelley has been running a half marathon in Memphis for a fundraiser for St. Jude. Her next one is on Dec. 3 and she and her family have already raised a total of $68,000. She is hoping to raise a total of $75,000 by the time of the race.

Attorney Al Spiegel, a partner of Menomonee Falls-based McLario law firm who represented members of the Kelley family for years, is donating $10 to Colton’s Giving Back to St. Jude for each estate planning consultation through the end of November. An estate planning consultation is free, said Spiegel.

Throughout the year, the Colton family collects donations, partners with businesses to fundraise, and does their signature event called "Colton's Giving Back to St. Jude" event in September, which is a carnival in Sussex Park Pavilion at Sussex Village Park. Kelley said there is a raffle, silent auction, face painting, live music, a balloon artist and other carnival-related activities.

"I like this because we are raising money for other people," said 8-year-old Colton. "We can help other people's cancers."

'A Disneyland for cancer'

Kelley said she is passionate about fundraising for St. Jude because they provided the best treatment for Colton, were very thorough and "did not cut any corners."

St. Jude provided all treatment, transportation costs, meals and housing for Colton's treatment for free. "Never once were we asked for a dime for our travel, housing, treatment or food. All costs incurred are covered by St Jude, which is 100% covered by donations," said Kelley. "They fly us out once a year (for an update appointment) for free."

Because it was all free, she wants to pay it forward.

And Colton said he loves going to St. Jude every year. Everyone is very nice, he said. "I love everything, but the needle," he said.

Kelley calls St. Jude the "Disneyland of Cancer" because it is a comforting and positive place, despite people going there for extremely stressful reasons.

The moment Colton and Kelley walked into St. Jude, they knew it was a positive place. It was the fact that she was greeted with a hug from the customer service person at the front desk, something that many medical places do not often do.

"St. Jude then became my family. We are a family," she said. "It is the happiest place you never want to be."

Kelley said that she and Colton will continue to go to St. Jude once a year for scans and checkups until he is 18, free of charge.

"We praise God every day for Colton’s successful treatment and pray to Him that others find this same success," said Kelley.

Bringing childhood cancer 'to the forefront any way we can'

Another reason the Kelley family continues to fundraise is to bring awareness of childhood cancer.

She was stunned to learn that only 4% of the total government funding used for cancer research goes toward pediatric cancer, according to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Because of this, also according to this foundation, only six new drugs have been developed for pediatric cancer since 2020.

"These are our kids … our future," said Kelley. "(Childhood cancer) seems to for some reason fly under the radar and certainly deserves more attention than it gets."

She also learned how toxic chemotherapy is for children. Two out of three children who had treatment for cancer are most likely to develop at least one chronic health condition, including musculoskeletal problems and second cancers due to how toxic the treatment is, according to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

"There is just not enough awareness out there about childhood cancer. We would like to bring it to the forefront any way we can," said Kelley.

Kelley said that there are a plethora of businesses that help in doing this and help her family fundraise, which also helps brings awareness to childhood cancer.

Kelley said that through businesses that have partnered with Kelley's fundraising, there were more than 200 businesses that donated in just this year alone, especially for the annual September carnival.Roughly 95% of all costs incurred to host the event, including food and drinks served, all of the music and almost 100% of the raffle and auction items are donated, she said. This allows virtually all monies raised to go directly to St Jude and add to the total.

She also said that businesses such as Run-Inn Erin's in Watertown hosted an entire month of events called "July for St. Jude," which raised more than $10,000 toward the Kelley family's fundraising efforts.

Spiegel said that it is important to give back to the community. "This inspires me. My firm is a Christian firm and he (Colton) is a member of our community," he said.

Kelley is grateful.

"Having businesses like Al with McLario join us this year to help get us public recognition with the media to raise awareness is priceless, and I am hopeful it will make next year's event even bigger and better," added Kelley.

Kelley said she is already planning the next carnival for September 2023 and that the family is committed to continuing fundraising for St. Jude.

"I feel I will never give back what they gave to me," said Kelley.

How to helpTo make a donation to St. Jude for Kelley's marathon, visit bit.ly/FallsStJude.To make an estate planning consultation for free to get $10 donated to Kelley's marathon, contact Attorney Al Spiegel, at McLario law firm at 262-251-4210. For more information on ways to make a donation to St. Jude, visit https://www.stjude.org/donateTo help the Colton family with future fundraisers, email kelleycolleen7@gmail.com or call 414-975-9931.

Cathy Kozlowicz can be reached at 262-361-9132 or cathy.kozlowicz@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @kozlowicz_cathy.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Falls family fundraises for St. Jude hospital, which saved their son