Jody

Crohn's disease

Jody's freckled face is a picture of determination. At 11 years old, she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic bowel disease. Since then , she's had five blood transfusions, numerous colonoscopies and endoscopies, PICC line placement (to deliver medication intravenously), a feeding tube and more time in the hospital than at home. "She's probably had more pain than most adults go through their whole life," says her mother Bobbie. But thanks to the support of doctors, nurses, and child life specialists at Niswonger Children's Hospital, she is getting stronger everyday. Now 12, Jody says she is determined, when she is healthy again, to become a pediatric care team member so she can help other kids the same way she's been helped.

Click here to meet the rest of our 2022 patient ambassadors!

Patients, team members, and community partners and volunteers of the region’s only children’s hospital will kick off the 2022 Ballad Health Niswonger Children's Hospital Radiothon on March 3rd and 4th this year.

For a decade now, radiothon has brought the community together for a good cause through media outlets. Four of Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation’s radio stations (98.5 WTFM, 95.9 The Hog WRZK, Classic Hits 102.7 FM, and ESPN Tri-Cities) will broadcast stories featuring families treated at Niswonger Children’s Hospital, doctors, and other staff members who work in the hospital. This is a day of encouraging the community to give back to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, as we rely on community supported funds to help us continue to provide excellent care to our patients and their families. The radiothon is the children’s hospital’s second largest annual fundraiser, and it has raised more than $3 million for babies, children, teenagers and their families in the Appalachian Highlands.

The 2022 Radiothon will support the newly announced expansion into Niswonger Children's Network. Through Ballad Health affiliate clinics and primary care offices, the expansion ensures that kids and families in every area of our region receive the same quality care they would as if they were treated at Niswonger Children's Hospital.

At Niswonger Children's Hospital we believe that seeing a kite fly from the ground and flutter in the breeze is a sign of hope and healing. By supporting Radiothon and raising funds and awareness for our hospital, you are helping us make kites fly, to help and heal the young people of this region - and, ultimately, to make hope rise.