My Miracle

This year I have been given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help join the fight to find a cure for those living with blood cancers. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has nominated me as a candidate in their Student of the 2019 Year fundraising challenge. This fundraising campaign is an intense seven week initiative in which select high school students from around the country compete to raise money to benefit LLS.

Together, we can create miracles

This mission is very personal to me because I’ve received my miracle and want to help others receive theirs. When I was nine years old I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a pain disorder that resulted in my inability to walk. After a year of chronic pain, crutches, and daily crying, the doctors admitted me to the hospital for a week and performed a continuous epidural to stop the pain which temporarily paralyzed me from the waist down but did not stop the pain. My pain worsened and the doctors feared that my syndrome was irreversible.

I asked them to amputate my leg

I told them that I didn’t want to live like this. Having no leg was better than having a leg that felt like this. I begged and begged. I am so glad that my mother never gave up on me.

Months later, we went to Rhode Island to try an experimental pain treatment. After 4 weeks, on April 27th, my mom’s birthday, I walked for the first time in two years.

I received my miracle, and I want to help others find their own miracle

During this time, my family and I hoped for a miracle, when I received mine, I got my life back. Every day, I wake up in the morning thankful for my miracle, but I know that every child and every family that’s fighting blood cancer is still waiting for their own miracle.

     We, as a community, must work together to give them their miracle

Although I don't have a personal connection to blood cancer, my world was flipped upside down twice, when cancer affected me. On July 6 2014, my life changed forever when my father had to explain that my grandfather had a tumor growing in his lung. After this, I thought cancer was done impacting my life, but on November 12, 2016 my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thanks to modern medicne, my grandparents lived. I get to see their smiles everyday, and I am so proud of their resilience in the face of cancer.

It is thanks to organizations like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society that my grandparents are still here, so please visit my website often to see updates and bring friends who would also like to donate!

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

To become a corporate sponsor, please visit 

https://www.llsform.org/0460FS01/form35/index.html

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