Please watch this performance I dedicated to my loved one who is strongly fighting the fight: Sound of Silence

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 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.

The mission of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. 

LLS is the leading source of free, highly specialized blood cancer information, education, and support for patients, survivors, families and healthcare professionals. We touch patients in their communities through our chapters across the U.S. and Canada. We advocate for blood cancer survivors and their families, helping patients navigate their cancer treatments and ensuring they have access to quality, affordable and coordinated care.  LLS invested $40.3 million in research in the fiscal year 2017 to advance life-saving research.

LLS recognizes that finding cures is not enough; we need to ensure that patients have access to the treatments, services and providers they need to live longer, better, healthier lives. LLS is dedicated to removing barriers to care. By providing our network of advocates a powerful voice, the Policy and Advocacy Team drives policies that accelerate the development and approval of innovative treatments and ensure that patients have sustainable access to quality, affordable coordinated care. Our team is committed to ensuring that patients have access to an adequate network of providers and services and are protected from high out-of-pocket costs that limit access to life-saving treatments

This is the 6th year for the Students of the Year campaign in the National Capital Area Chapter, and with the hard work of the candidates and their team members, our goal is to raise more than $2.25 million locally to help cure blood cancer and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

LLS advances laws to ensure that health plans provide fair coverage of cancer treatments that are administered in pill form. Through our efforts, oral parity laws have been enacted in 43 states and the District of Columbia, and we’re pushing to secure similar laws in more states and at the federal level. LLS helped pass the 21st Century Cures Act into law, ensuring reform that will enable the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to speed the review and approval of new therapies. This bipartisan bill committed nearly $5 billion in additional funding for the National Institutes of Health over the next 10 years, funding that is critical to sustaining the current momentum to advance our understanding of the treatment of cancer.

We really are changing the face of blood cancer!

It’s an honor to be a part of such an outstanding group of fellow students, but an even larger honor to be able to work for the patients, survivors and their families. I am fundraising in memory of Kelly Brodnik, whose life was taken last Septemeber at age 15, and Maegan Kilner a 16-year-old who survived Hodgkin Lymphoma Stage 2A with the help of LLS. 

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! Beating cancer is in our blood!

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