I am honored to participate as a candidate for the 2021 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 running to honor my close friends and family who have battled cancer and am raising critical dollars in honor of a young patient hero, Elena, who is in remission from Acute Myeloid Leukemia. 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.

Cancer has touched my life in many ways, from my family to my friends. Some of the people closest to me that inspired me to run for Student of the Year are my mother, both my grandfathers, my grandma on my mom’s side, and our dear friend Debbie Simon. My mother’s experience of overcoming Breast cancer and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma serves as a vibrant example of the courageous, unwavering, and unyielding fight against these diseases. At 16 she had her first battle with cancer, Lymphoma. She underwent radiation treatment after her father had his first fight with Leukemia when she was eight. Soon after, my grandfather relapsed, and unfortunately passed away. In 2018, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer along with her mother a couple of months earlier. My grandmother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, so she is still going through treatment but is doing amazing. After both undergoing chemo treatment and my mother’s surgeries, they are both healthy and excited to participate in this campaign with me!

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!

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