I am honored to participate as a candidate 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 proud to be raising critical dollars in honor of a young patient hero who is currently battling or is in remission from blood cancer. 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.

Since the early 1960s, five-year survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled and 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.

Like some of you, I have witnessed first-hand the debilitating effects that leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma can have on those who suffer from these blood cancers, and on the friends and family who care for and nurture their loved ones. When I was 4 years old, I was diagnosed with Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I was treated for just under 2½ years at Saint Francis hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was an hour and a half away from my house. During this time, I received chemotherapy, steroids, spinal treatments, and bone marrow aspirations.  Treatments were taxing and very hard on my body. I had very little idea of what was happening to me. I knew I was sick, but I had little understanding of how serious it was. I learned about death at a very young age. LLS helps families like mine with financial and emotional support. Current treatment protocols use drugs that are twenty years old and are very hard on a patient's body. I want to help LLS raise funds that will allow for the development of new medications, and treatment options that are both easier on the patient and more effective, leading for a cure of all blood cancers, so fewer children have to suffer the same treatments and long-term side effects that previous patients and survivors suffer from.

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.