St. Jude Families Benefit From Music Therapy [Watch]

"It's my job use music to help patients and families accomplish physical and emotional needs while here at the hospital," said Amy Love, board-certified music therapist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "This might be utilizing songwriting, listening to music, playing instruments, or having heartbeat recordings."

A heartbeat recording involves recording a child's heartbeat with a small microphone set inside a stethoscope. The heartbeat is then used as the basic beat of a song, called a legacy recording. "This song can be something that's unique to the child's interests, something that's really important to the family."

Love says that legacy recordings can be shared with family members and friends, and carry on a child's memory. "When a child's journey ends at St. Jude, parents may worry that they'll forget the little things that made their child unique, like the sound of their voice or the touch of their hand. It is these important memories we seek to address in legacy building."

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital opened in 1962. The hospital was created by entertainer Danny Thomas. St. Jude has been finding cures and saving children with groundbreaking research, and has helped push the survival rate for childhood cancer from less than 20% in 1962 to more than 80% today. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food. Because the majority of St. Jude fundraising comes from individual contributors, St. Jude has the freedom to focus on what matters most - finding cures and saving kids.

Join the fight against childhood cancer by becoming a St. Jude Partner in Hope. Call the KIX Cares for Kids Radiothon at 1-800-372-4999, or click the donation button below.