I am honored to participate as a canidate for the 2019 Students of the Year program, a seven-week initiative in which select high school students from around the country participate in a fundraising competition to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I am raising critical dollars in honor of my younger cousin Chase Kemberling. Each dollar is a vote. The candidate team that raises the most money at the end of the seven weeks is named Student of the Year. Our mission is to not only raise the most money but also to bring attention to blood cancers like Leukemia, which is the most common form of cancer in children and teens.

When my young cousin Chase was 4, he was admitted to Hershey Medical Center with severe stomach pains that our family thought were due to appendicitis. Instead, he was diagnosed that night with stage 4 Burkitt’s Lymphoma, an aggressive cancer with rapid-growing tumors.

Chase, who was honored by LLS as 2015 Boy of the Year, is now 9 years old and celebrating 5 years cancer-free. My family and I are so fortunate that Chase beat lymphoma. Together, we can give others the same chance.

You never think it’s going to happen to anyone in your family, but someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 3 minutes. Compassion and support from organizations like LLS are essential to fighting the battle – something our family knows all too well.

Since the early 1960s, five-year survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. And many LLS supported therapies not only help blood cancer patients but are helping patients with other cancers and serious diseases. In fact, drugs first approved for blood cancers are now approved to treat patients with stomach cancers, skin cancers, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

We really are changing the face of blood cancer!

All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible. They'll not only support LLS-funded research but will help provide critical information and support for patients, and support advocacy for laws to ensure patients can access the care and treatments they need.

Please visit our website often and bring friends who would also like to donate!

On behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, thank you for your support!

Any amount will help LLS save lives. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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

To understand more about how important clinical trials and research grants are, take a few minutes to watch the video below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6SzI2ZfPd4