GAINESVILLE, FL (352today.com)—Dr. John Ligon knew from a young age that pediatrics was his passion. It all started when he was a child, with a few quick trips to the pediatrician’s office.
Dr. Ligon enjoyed visiting his local pediatrician, and as he grew older, he began to harness a passion for caring for children.
His passion continued to grow parallel to his growth into a young adult.
Dr. Ligon enrolled in medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and earned a medical degree. He then completed a pediatrics residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
While in college, Dr. Ligon was particularly interested in how the immune system can fight cancer, specifically through procedures such as bone marrow transplants.
“What you’re doing is taking the immune system from somebody else that hasn’t been battered and broken down by all the treatment required for cancer and giving it to the patient to reinvigorate their immune system and help it attack cancer,” he explains.
Dr. Ligon is now part of the extensively talented pediatric staff at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, where he works on a team that provides bone marrow and stem cell transplants for patients with diagnoses such as advanced leukemia.
As his burning passion for pediatric work continues to flame, Dr. Ligon believes fundraisers such as the upcoming Bear-A-Thon will help his patients in more ways than one.
“As someone who both takes care of patients in the hospital and also conducts research to try and generate new treatments, I always try to emphasize that there are two main pieces that we are trying to support through these efforts,” he says. “One is that we’re trying to generate better treatments… the other is that we have parents of patients with other kids outside the hospital. Those parents have to drive from hours away to receive treatment.”
This can lead to periods of compounding financial stress for multiple families, which Dr. Ligon says can be softened through fundraising.
“These families are stretched financially to the brink, and every dollar that we can give to help these families is transformative and can help these families overcome this incredibly challenging time in their lives while their child is away receiving cancer treatment,” he says
Although cancer treatment has drastically improved, Dr. Ligon admits more work is yet to be done.
“While we’ve come a long way, there are still too many kids who ultimately won’t survive their cancer treatment, and we need to find new and better treatments to help more of these kids survive cancer,” he says.
Donations through Bear-A-Thon provide stuffed teddy bears and chemo ducks for children undergoing cancer treatment at UF Health Shands, but Dr. Ligon believes there’s more to the message.
“I think the kids appreciate the bears and the chemo ducks,” says Dr. Ligon. “I think a little token can go a long way. Some of these kids are outside of their homes for extended periods of time, and to get that token from someone out there who they’ll never meet, I think it gives them peace in knowing that they’re not going through this alone and that there are other people out there rooting them on and trying to help them get through this difficult time.”