Devin Dawson’s St. Jude Trip Guided by His Stepsister’s Cancer Battle

Devin Dawson met a young girl at St. Jude who for a few moments allowed him to forget about his life, new album and his own family member who is battling the disease the research hospital was built to cure.

During the 2018 Country Cares for St. Jude conference, dozens of artists and hundreds of radio station and other media members converged on Memphis to learn how to best spread awareness of a cancer fighting children's hospital that never bills patients or families. Dawson visited for the second time and connected with Madison, a graphic design major in college who is nine months in remission.

"I forgot what I was doing," the "All on Me" singer says. "We just kind of hit it off. I’m obviously a black and white guy, and she wears black too. She had these really cool black and white paintings and just her interpretation of her creativity even though it’s so different than mine ... it was really cool to just instantly bridge a gap between that."

Dawson's new Dark Horse album dropped days after his mid-January visit, but that was far from top of mind. He felt a comfort there he struggles to find sometimes when visiting with his 40-year-old stepsister, a woman who's been battling different types of cancer for five years.

“For me ,when I go back and visit her in my hometown, I feel guilty because of what’s going on in my life and how that’s differing from what’s going on in her life ... and I find it hard to talk to her in a way," he says.

Cancer truly does affect us all, which is why St. Jude's mission is so important. The research hospital shares their breakthroughs freely and over the decades, since founder Danny Thomas first dreamed up his vision, they've made amazing strides in cure rates for children with cancer and other life threatening diseases.

On Feb. 1-2 Taste of Country is joining over a dozen Townsquare Media radio stations in this fight, raising money by sharing stories and asking for you to become a partner in hope. Click the button below for more information.

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