What can Joy do? In December 2022, Connor was admitted to Randall Children’s Hospital after experiencing a debilitating brain bleed. Once he’d undergone multiple surgeries, Connor and his family knew weeks of recovery were in front of him.

When Priscilla Islas-McGaughy was five months pregnant with her daughter, Kamari, she learned news that rocked her family’s entire world: Kamari would be born with a rare congenital heart disease, Truncus Arteriosus Type 2, and would require surgery once she was born.

Vice President of Programs at JoyRx, Maura Boyce, recently wrote an article for Healthcare Business Today on the power and importance of music as medicine.

For children who love playing and embarking on adventures, bumps and bruises are common and are often nothing to worry about. A parent can give their child a hug and an ice pack, and most kids are back on their feet ready to play again. However, for the now five-year-old daughter of Madiha, the bump on her finger was life-changing.

When Jaimi first reached out to JoyRx, her request was simple: a song for her four-year-old son, James. Located in Alaska, James wasn’t receiving his treatment at a JoyRx-served healthcare partner facility, but Jaimi heard about JoyRx though an online support group and hoped for a connection through our Digital Live offering.

Is there music played in hospitals? That’s a resounding yes! JoyRx celebrated the St. Patrick’s Day spirit with a concert just for Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas.   

Every February, JoyRx, the mission delivery of Children’s Cancer Association, partners with local Joy Maker businesses to celebrate Joy all month long. This year, we partnered with KATU News, iHeart Radio, other local businesses, and members of the community to raise critical funds for our JoyRx Music, Mentorship, and Nature programs.

Every February, Unitus supports JoyRx and the kids and families to whom it brings the healing power of Joy. The delight and warmth that JoyRx inspires cannot be measured, but it can be felt. You can feel it when you support the JoyRx mission and through the Joy that you bring to kids like 11-year-old Xavier Waldow.

When Rosa’s son, Lian, was born at 36 weeks following a difficult c-section, she and her husband learned that Lian had Down Syndrome. They learned that he had a heart defect. They learned that he would need many surgeries.   

On Friday, December 16, JoyRx celebrated the holidays with the Oregon Symphony Musicians for a special holiday music event. Comprised of six strings and percussionist volunteers from the Oregon Symphony, the livestream concert delivered festive holiday cheer to families across the country.

At Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, kids received a Joyful treat in the form of live, bedside JoyRx music. Grammy-nominated artist SaulPaul performed an hour-long outdoor music set for the children, families, and healthcare workers in attendance — and then brought the music indoors to kids who were unable to venture outside.  

At its core, music is medicine — and no one knows that better than our JoyRx Music Specialists. They witness a positive impact on the sick children they serve every day — drawing on the universal power of music to lift and energize spirits.

When six-year-old Oliver first started having health problems, his parents, Tyson and Vanessa, believed it was asthma. When Oliver started snoring in his sleep or wheezing wearing a mask, his parents thought it was just sleep apnea or because of their son’s growing anxiety.

Helping children feel Joy in challenging moments has been Allison Moore’s focus even before becoming JoyRx’s Director of Programs, South. Before joining JoyRx, Allison was a child life specialist at Dell Children’s Comprehensive Care (CCC), where she helped children understand the process of their treatment at the clinic.

It was a Joyful day on Monday, October 3 as JoyRx Music Specialist Christy Medley arrived at Dell Children’s Comprehensive Care in Austin, Texas, to launch live, in-person music services.

On Thursday, September 22, JoyRx expanded its digital-live concert offering for sick children as part of the JoyRx Music program, broadcasting music medicine to four partnered hospitals around the nation.

Hospital visits and overnight stays for seriously ill children and teens at three new locations are about to get a little more Joyful! We’re excited to announce new additions to our JoyRx Music national hospital partners: University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (UMCSN), East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, and Medical City Children’s Hospital. These three new additions bring our national hospital partners to a total of 31.  

A recent independent literature review by Karyl Askew Consulting proved what we’ve known all along at JoyRx: that music makes sick kids feel better. And not just emotionally — in addition to benefits for mood and mental well-being, music also decreases pain and anxiety. The impact is all-encompassing, benefiting the emotional, physical, psychosocial and developmental wellness of kids in treatment and improving the overall quality of life and hospital experience for patients, their families and even the hospital community itself.  

Despite being a charming teenager who loves to crack jokes for his family, Julio, who lives with Trisomy 21, or Down Syndrome, struggled to connect socially with others, an issue that was exacerbated during the pandemic. He had been working on this with Child Life Specialist Allison Moore at Dell Children’s Hospital for two years before COVID-19 forced Julio into isolation.

JoyRx Music began serving Austin hospitals in 2018 and, to date, has transformed through joy the treatment experience for nearly 1,500 kids in seven Texas pediatric hospitals. After years of progress and partnership with local hospitals and the business community, JoyRx Music is amplifying service outreach and impact in the Lonestar state.