Marlo Thomas: Danny Thomas at 100... and Today's Celebrity Dreamers: There came a moment in my father's career when he said to himself, "I've made it. I've got everything I need. Now it's time to give back." This would eventually come to mean years of tirelessly building his dream -- a research hospital dedicated to the study of cancer in children, where no child would ever be turned away for a family's inability to pay. And what a reality that dream has become. Fifty years after its launch, St. Jude is the premier research and treatment center in the country for children stricken with cancer.
Today there are many front line fighters among us who use their spotlight to focus on causes and passions of their own. One of the finest examples is my friend Michael J. Fox, whose midlife collision with Parkinson's Disease inspired him to launch a relentless drive to find a cure for that illness once and for all. I believe he will win that fight. Then there's Bono's crusade to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease in Africa and around the world; Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's conscientious devotion to protecting children, families and wildlife in endangered regions in Asia; and the work of heroes like Robert Redford, who have changed the world with their environmental activism.
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