Team Juliana is led by SOY candidates Julia Elman and Grace Barnes. This spring, Julia and Grace will be graduating from Washington-Lee High School: a momentous milestone that would have included Juliana. Team Juliana fights to give child cancer patients the possibility to grow up and follow their dreams, something Juliana will never get to do. To learn more about Juliana's story, go to our Team Juliana page. 

I'm a junior at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. I'm part of the Cancer Education and Action club at our school, which is how I came to be invovled with Team Juliana. Our club's founding members were close friends of Juliana Clarkson, who lost her battle with Luekemia a few weeks before beginning her freshman year of high school. Each year I have been at WL I have been a part of Team Juliana for Light the Night, which has raised thousands of dollars for LLS while allowing for Juliana to be remembered by family and friends. While I never knew Juliana personally, in the years I have been part of Team Juliana I've gotten to know so much more about a girl who lived her life with a smile on her face. By raising money for LLS togther we fight to make sure that no one else has to lose someone as bright as Juliana to blood cancers.

   .  

So this year, I am honored to participate in the 2019 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 be 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(s) 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.

As a member of the Washingon-Lee Cancer Eduation and Action Club I understand that talking about a cancer-free future is not enough and that we have to actively purse the future we want to see. Students of the Year is an initiative that gives us a platform to put words into to action and help find a cure to cancer. I hope that you will join me and Team Juliana in the fight to find a cure!   

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 and bring friends who would also like to donate!

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

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