Desc: People Who Make a Difference: Dr. Emil J Freireich, Father of Clinical Cancer Research: Directed by Allen Morris. With Emil Freireich. Emil J Freireich was child from the streets of Chicago who started college at the age of sixteen with $25 given by a friend of his mother; began medical school at eighteen; and helped discover the cure for childhood leukemia before he was forty. During the span of his career, the man whose ambition was to become the most famous family doctor in the world, instead became the man who championed the cause of clinical research to alleviate the suffering of thousands of cancer victims. His story is told by his wife of over fifty years, several colleagues (many of whom were also among the thousands of students he has trained), and in his own words. Emmy Award winner Allen Morris crafts an intimate portrait detailing the humanity of one of the world's most influential, charismatic and dedicated medical pioneers.