Text Box: By WALT GOGOLYA TORRINGTON — When Becky Dew was just a baby, she was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer and given months to live. Doctors told her family that no child had ever survived the disease before. As she does every year, Dew, now 28, spent Sunday volunteering her time at the 30th Annual St. Jude Hospital Telethon. “These people are like family,” she said Sunday. Dew, now married to Michael Hayes and mother of a five-month-old daughter, Gabriella, credits the children’s hospital with saving her life. At 16 months old, and a week before Christmas, Dew was diagnosed with hepatoblastema, a very rare cancerous tumor that originates in the liver. Dew began receiving treatment at the UConn Medical Center in Farmington before family friends put her in contact with St. Jude’s. As a result of the treatment, the tumor went from being the size of a grapefruit to the size of a lemon, at which point it was taken out. She has been cancer free ever since. Becky’s mother, Esther, said being at the telethon each year can be emotional. “I’m very proud of the woman she’s become,” she said. “I’m thankful to the doctors who helped her.” Tim Driscoll Sr., president of the Litchfield County Chapter of St. Jude’s, remembers holding Becky Dew in his arms when she was just a baby. “I once told you I’d be going to your wedding,” Driscoll said to Dew during Sunday’s telethon, choking back tears. “And I did.” St. Jude Hospital, based in Memphis, Tenn., was founded in 1962 by Danny Thomas and, since its doors opened, has provided free medical care to children who have been afflicted with catastrophic childhood diseases. Driscoll has been at the head of raising money for the Litchfield County Chapter, which has maintained a grassroots level and a “first name” basis with the contributors, he said. In the past 30 years, the chapter has raised $1.3 million, with the telethon being the biggest event, he said. Driscoll noted that the hospital needs around $1.3 million a day to operate, due to the fact that all the care is given for free.

From left to right: Barbara Wood, Barbara Danaher, Margaret Rosinski, Christine Cornish and Delfina McKenna.