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Instagram: marissa.lizabeth

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Instagram: Clawing4acure

Facebook: Clawing Foracure

Tik Tok: Clawing4acure

Hello! My name is Marissa Riddell, and I'm a senior at Oakdale High School. I'm taking dual enrollment classes at FCC where I am able to challenge myself within my education. I haven't been able to be active within my school community unfortunately, however I'm still grateful for the memories I made there. For most of my life, I was a competitive gymnast, however I quit in my sophomore year. Since then, I'm likely to be found listening to music with a book or sketchbook in my hand.

Throughout my life, I faced many challenges, but there's one that nothing could ever be compared to. In April of 2021, my life was completely flipped. During the middle of May, my nose began bleeding and my face was swelling. After being turned down from the ER, I went home only to get worse. My breathing became incredibly shallow and difficult, almost as if there was a weight pushing on my chest. So naturally, I went back where I was then sent to Children's National Hospital in D.C. It was there that a large mass was found in my chest, pushing on my heart and trachea, hence why my face was swelling, and I couldn't breathe. Not only did I have cancer, I had fluid around my heart and lungs as well as a blood clot near my heart. I was admitted to the PICU immediately where tests and scans were done constantly. On April 15th, I was officially diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma. It felt as if my whole world had been shattered. The idea of "nothing bad can happen to me" was completely wiped.

The next six months of my life, during the summer of my junior year, were overruled by chemotherapy and hospital visits. The most painful thing, despite the side effects of chemo, that I lived through during those six months, was watching as my hair fell out in handfuls. Being a teenage girl, long hair is the normal, and my hair was extremely important to me. My only thought was, "Why does the frontline cancer treatment cause patients to lose their hair and suffer more harm than healing?"

Since my treatment has ended, I was inspired to take that thought and turn in into some way I could help. When Catherine Brennan messaged me asking to be a team member, I was thrilled! I felt like I could help those in the future who get diagnosed with blood cancer like I did. Eventually, she asked me to be a co-candidate, and I was so grateful for her giving me this opportunity to help people.

My goal for this campaign is to raise at least $20,000 dollars on my own, however, I always want to raise more for this cause. LLS gave me hope when I researched blood cancer after I was diagnosed. And while I may not be able to find a cure for cancer or a better treatment, I am able to contribute the funds for the research, and this campaign gives me the perfect opportunity. I can't raise that money without your help, will you contribute to this fight against blood cancer?

Please continue to share this with any friends, family, co-workers, anyone you know! Blood cancer is very dear to me and I hope to help find a cure for it, so that no one has to suffer.