PHOENIX (AZFamily) -- Bess Atkinson remembers the scary and dark time of her childhood like it was yesterday.
"A lot of pain," she recalled. "I was in a lot of pain, so that was the big thing."
Bess had tumors all over her body.
A biopsy of her clavicle revealed she had an extremely rare cancer: she had tumors inside blood vessels inside her bones. At that time, Bess was one of only 10 similar cases ever seen in the world, and most of those patients lost their battles.
"And to know you survived, how does that make you feel when you look back on it," Arizona's Family anchor Tess Rafols asked.
"I can't understand that. I just know that St. Jude just did an amazing thing for me," she said. "People keep telling me I'm a miracle, and I just tried to live through this so I could have a life again."
When no other doctors could help her, Bess was sent to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. She went back and forth from her home in Pennsylvania to Tennessee to undergo treatment.
"This hospital was like home and a family for so long," she said. "My nurse, who was about the same age as my sister, she became like a second sister to me."
Doctors and researchers found a new chemotherapy drug that stopped the tumors from growing.
As an adult today, Bess has lived decades of a cancer-free life.
The impact St. Jude and all the staff had on her was so profound that Bess moved to Memphis to work at the campus. In fact, she gave Arizona's Family a tour of St. Jude when we visited a few months ago, marveling at the progress and growth since it opened in 1962.
"The fact that how much it's grown here and how much research we do," she said. "I mean, we are not just cancer; we are every pediatric disease, and our big thing now is neurological diseases, and to know that maybe we can find a cure or treatment for these neurological diseases is just amazing."
Dr. Rachayata Dharmat is the director of preclinical design and development core at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She develops treatments to give families hope to help kids live, just like Bess did when she was little.
"I think in 10 years, we are going to be leading the space and leading the world in treating these kids," Dr. Dharmat said.
Bess' family never got one bill from St. Jude because any child who is a patient there is treated for free. Funding comes from generous donations from companies and individuals, like you.
"With that money, our researchers can do their research for free," Bess said. "With that money, a family from Arizona that has to come to St. Jude does not have to pay for flights, housing, even food while they're here. It's all free."