First Lady Jill Biden to meet Ukrainian children at St. Jude

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — First Lady Jill Biden was scheduled to travel to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee on Friday, a visit expected to include meetings with Ukrainian children with cancer and their families fleeing the war and seeking treatment in the U.S.

Biden's afternoon visit to the Memphis hospital is the first leg of a trip Friday that also includes travel to Colorado for a Democratic National Committee finance event in Denver, the White House said.

Her visit to St. Jude, considered a leading researcher of cancer and other life-threatening diseases that affect children, is part of her and President Joe Biden's so-called Cancer Moonshot effort, which aims to reduce the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years.

Improving the lives of children with cancer is a main goal of St. Jude, founded by late actor Danny Thomas in 1962. Using mostly private donations, families with children who are patients at St. Jude never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing and food. Thomas'' daughter, actress Marlo Thomas, is St. Jude's national outreach director.

Jill Biden will meet with a cancer survivor, tour a laboratory and receive a briefing on St. Jude’s research programs, the White House said. Then, she will visit privately with Ukrainian pediatric cancer patients and their relatives.

On Monday, St. Jude received four Ukrainian children, ages nine months to 9 years old. In addition to receiving cancer treatment, the children also will get therapy to address their psychological, emotional and cultural needs, the hospital said.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, St. Jude teamed up with foundations in Poland to evacuate children with cancer from the war zone, St. Jude President and CEO James Downing said.

The collaborative has...