To my amazing friends and family:

As a member of the Board of Trustees for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I am honored to chair the 2020 Students of the Year program, benefiting LLS. This seven-week initiative brings local outstanding high school students together to raise money to support blood cancer research and patient assistance.

I am proud to be supporting Team Ben - Ben is a wonderful 16 year old young man from Marquette High School who was diagnosed with leukemia when he was in kindergarten. Ben underwent many years of tough treatments and is now a thriving (and driving!) teenager. He happens to live down the street from my cousin, who has a son Ben's age, and I've gotten the privelage of getting to know Ben's family during our mutual involvement in supporting blood cancer research advancements. Ben is amazing as is his loving family and I am honored to be part of Team Ben. When we raise $50,000, Ben will be able to commission a research grant and help fund researchers right here in St. Louis make progress in the fight against blood cancer!

Click here to watch Ben tell his story - Ben's Video

Many of you also know that I lost my dad to leukemia in 2005 and my grandfather was taken by this disease long before I could ever meet him. I know first hand how devastating the diagnosis is for the patient and their family. My hope is that, through this work, no one will have to experience what my family or Ben's has in the future.

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.

We REALLY are changing the face of blood cancer!

I'm asking for your donation to help Team Ben get to our goal of commissioning a research grant. Just click on the DONATE TODAY button right here on this page. Your donation is tax deductible and will help provide researchers here in St. Louis with funding to keep moving forward as well as patient assistance to help with co-pays and other treatment related expenses. 

From Team Ben, my own family and especially my heart, THANK YOU for helping us make a difference and keeping us on the path to finding a cure for blood cancer! Your support means the world to us!

Many Thanks,

Stephanie