Hello!

My name is Thomas. I have been given the amazing opportunity to support The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as a Student Visionary of the Year 2025 candidate. This seven-week fundraising competition runs from January 22 to March 15, 2025, and I’m leading Team Kicking Out Cancer to raise funds for LLS and the families it supports. Our team’s goal is $50,000, but we’re determined to surpass it. Your donation can help us make a significant difference in the fight against cancer.

Throughout my childhood, I frequently heard adults discussing pediatric cancers and their tragic effects on children around my age and their families. My grandfather, to this day, volunteers at the St Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon as a math and science teacher for teenagers who are not physically able to go to school. He has shared many stories with me over the years about the resilience, strength, and gratitude his students demonstrate every day.  Hearing the terrifying facts about pediatric cancers and the patients' unbelievable courage motivated me to step up and try to do my part to help save the lives of children with deadly cancers, particularly Leukemia, the most common pediatric cancer in the world.

By supporting LLS, I am helping the organization make great strides toward providing financial assistance for research aimed at discovering a cure against various deadly cancers, not only blood cancer.  As a global leader in the fight against cancer, LLS:

• Funds cutting-edge research leading to breakthroughs in immunotherapy, genomics and personalized medicine that are improving and saving the lives of patients
• Provides free education and support for blood cancer patients and families, including personalized, one-on-one support, assistance with identifying and enrolling in clinical trials, and more.
• Mobilizes thousands of advocates to drive policy changes that accelerate the development of new cancer treatments and break down barriers to care.

Every three minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer. By donating to LLS, you are helping their mission to help cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families. Not only is LLS helping patients with blood cancers, but its impact goes beyond blood cancer. Of the 66 new cancer-fighting drugs approved by the FDA in the US since 2017, 56 were initially developed for blood cancers, and many had funding from LLS. All 56 drugs show promise for treating other cancers and diseases including lung, brain, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers, Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and MS.

Please consider joining this fight by making a donation. All donations must be received by March 15th, 2025 so donate today! All donations are greatly appreciated and tax-deductible in the US. Please visit my website often and tell friends who might also like to donate! In addition, when submitting a donation, please check to see if your company matches donations. If so, please let me know, so I can make sure the match goes towards the team's campaign. Lastly, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to talk to a decision-maker at your company about sponsorship options.

Thanks to your support, my efforts will help ensure this generation is the last to see cancer.

On behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, thank you!

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