My name is Julia Eidt. I am 10 years old, and I go to Saint Richard Catholic School in Jackson. My grandmother Sissy Eidt lives in Natchez.

I enjoy coming to Natchez a couple times a year to spend the weekend and holidays with her.

I also like coming to Natchez because it is very different from other just plain cities, and there are one-of-a-kind things here that you cannot find anywhere else like looking over the bluff at the Mississippi River.

I enjoy going downtown and walking into restaurants or stores and seeing people who are related to me or who are family friends.

This is also a one-of-kind thing. Something else that makes Natchez special is the event that has been held in Natchez at the Castle Restaurant to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for seven years.

This is special to my family and me, because I had cancer. My time fighting cancer was hard.

I had AML (acute myeloid leukemia) which is a cancer in the blood cells. I was at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., for seven months.

I had just turned 2 years old when I was diagnosed. I go back for checkups to St. Jude every August or September.

When I go for my checkups, I stay overnight at a hotel on the hospital’s campus called the Grizzly House (named after the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team). I have my blood taken with a pointy needle, and my heart is checked with little jelly stickers connected to a computer.

I always go back and visit my doctor and nurses.

And we always eat in the cafeteria and get ice cream.

In 2010, the doctor told me that I was in full remission, which means I am fully a survivor. Even though the battle was tricky, I was strong enough to fight the disease.

I believe it is important to support St. Jude.

The money that is donated to St. Jude helps to find cures for all types of cancer, not just children like me.

This is special to me because my uncle Jeff was diagnosed in January with the same kind of cancer as me.

Thank you for your great generosity to those of you who help raise money.

The St. Jude Benefit will take place this at 6 p.m. today at The Castle Restaurant. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the evening’s meal and silent auction go to St. Jude.

I believe that St. Jude is the best miracle. Thank you Natchez and you all are the best!

 

Julia Eidt is a cancer survivor who lives in the Jackson area.