It's been a week since kickoff, and I am so proud of my team for how cooperative and amazing they've been so far! We've been rocking it and we'll continue to do so over the next several weeks! A massive thanks to everyone who's donated: we love and appreciate you!!! 

Hello! I'm Ani Apresyan and I have signed up to save lives with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and am working with my friends to raise as much as possible over the next 7 weeks through the Students of the Year campaign.

Students of the Year (or SOY) is a program that funds and furthers cancer research. By participating in SOY, we can make a difference and help fight for a cure for cancer. We are honoring Lukas (pictured below), a local blood cancer survivor who inspires us and helps us understand how necessary this campaign is (to hear his story, click on this link). Lukas and many others will be greatly impacted by your donation. Our fundraising will raise money to invest in the top 15% of researchers globally, pioneer and advance new therapies, break down barries to medical care, and make progress in clinical trials.

But I can't do it alone. Over the years, support from people like you has been responsible for the blood cancer advancements that have doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled the survival rate for some blood cancers. LLS has helped advance 60 of the 70 FDA approved blood cancer treatments from 2017-2020. In my own lifetime, I've seen how far cancer treatment and research has gone. It's no longer an invincible force; when my grandfather was diagnosed with chronic leukemia, we didn't yet realize how far science had already come. But now, a mere couple years after his diagnosis, he's living his life to the fullest! I could've never anticipated how much these donations and fundraisers truly help in the fight against cancer. However, I know that with your help, we'll be one step closer to making the cancer survival rate 100%!
 
Many LLS-supported therapies not only help blood cancer patients but are also now used to treat patients with rare forms of stomach and skin cancers and are in clinical trials for patients with lung, brain, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers. And LLS-funded drugs like targeted therapies and immunotherapies are now saving thousands of lives every day. Your donation will help get new science and treatments in motion faster than ever before. 
 
We really are getting close to our goal of a world without blood cancers every day, with $1.3 billion invested worldwide in blood cancer research since LLS's founding! Let's keep this momentum going!
 
All donations are greatly appreciated and tax-deductible. They'll not only support LLS research, but patient services, advocacy, public and professional education, and community services as well, allowing all of us to make a difference locally, nationally, and even globally. 
 
Please visit my website often and tell any friends who would also like to donate!
 
From all of us on Team Coalition Against Cancer, thank you so much for your support in the fight against blood cancers! 

For more information about LLS, please visit www.lls.org