Thank you for visiting my Students of the Year fundraising webpage! Although the funds raised online from this point forward won’t impact the competition for the Triangle Student of the Year, I’m proud to be continuing my efforts. Cancer hasn’t stopped, and so neither have I. I’m honored to be continuing my fundraising and working towards a special award for going “Above and Beyond,” as I know the need for the life-saving work of LLS is greater than ever! 

 

With that in mind, I’ll be continuing to raise funds RIGHT now until the Grand Finale on June 18^th. I appreciate your endless support to find a cure for blood cancers!

Today I held my first meeting with my student team members! We have so many ideas for February. I am so happy that my team is as excited and passionate about this program as I am. We are so, so, so excited for February! 

Top from left to right: Gress McGowan, Emma Ciesla, Adela Palmtag, Grace Pickett

Bottom from left to right: Emily Cruz, Me! (Megan Adams), Bevin Adams

Love, love, love these girls!

I am honored to participate as a candidate for the 2020 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 support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and am raising critical dollars in honor of a young patient hero who is currently battling or is in remission from a 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 or 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!

Personally, I am competing in honor of my uncle. My uncle was diagnosed with primary mediastinal B cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma right before Christmas in 2013. The news of his diagnosis really hit me hard. My uncle was one of the strongest and healthiest people I knew. He was a pilot in the air force and a loving dad to my two young cousins. I visited him a couple of months after he started receiving treatment, and I knew immediately that I didn't want anyone else I knew or loved to go through the pain and hardships that he did. Thankfully, he made a full recovery and is now a Lieutenant Colonel Pilot in the air force with countless accomplishments. In my campaign, I am working to spread awareness about this awful illness. I am driven to raise funds to improve treatments for patients and to do my part to help make an impact in finding a cure for cancer so less families have to suffer as my uncle and his family did.

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, bring friends who would also like to donate, and share our page with friends and family members! 

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

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