I am honored to be a candidate on the team Vienna is 4 Lovers in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) 2020 Students of the Year (SOY) campaign, a seven-week initiative in which high school students from around the country are nominated to participate in a fundraising competition to benefit LLS’s mission: to find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

This is the second year I have participted in the campaign. Last year, I was a team member, and I was able to fundraise over $6,000 with your generous contributions. I learned so much through my experience last year that I know this year will be even more successful. Thank you to those who supported me last year, and who continue to support me this year. 

Like last year, I am raising funds in memory of Ryan Drake, a close family friend. Ryan was diagnosed with Leukemia in July of 2011 and passed away a few months later. Ryan was one of the most happy, lively, and beautiful human beings I have ever met despite his hardships. Ryan had Down Syndrome and Epilepsy. I was there the following morning comforting my best friend, Claudia, Ryan's older sister. I joined this campaign to make sure no other child, or family, has to suffer from a blood cancer. My goal is simple. It is to raise funds to fight blood cancer and prevent it from taking more lives, to fund treatments discoveries, and provide support for families like Ryan's. 

Claudia & Ryan when they were little

Please donate to allow for these blood cancer patients to have a chance of getting the treatments they need. I cannot do it alone, and for your support, I thank you. 

Claudia and I eating ice cream in the summer of 2018

Claudia and I in the summer of 2019

To do this, I will fundraise $10,000. My team, Vienna is 4 Lovers, goal is to fundraise $30,000. Each dollar is a vote and the team that raises the most money at the end of the seven weeks is named Students of the Year. As a team, our main mission is to bring attention to blood cancers like leukemia, which is the most common form of cancer in children and teens.

We are changing the face of blood cancer! Will you join us?

Because of campaigns like Students of the Year, LLS has seen tremendous success discovering new and more effective treatments for blood cancer patients and has created a new exciting initiative focusing on treatments for pediatric patients.

• LLS funded 43 of the 49 FDA approved treatments for blood cancer patients since 2017
• Since 2000, more than 40% of the new cancer therapies approved by the FDA started as blood cancer research
• In 2019, LLS established The LLS Children’s Initiative, a comprehensive $50 MILLION multi-year endeavor, to help children with cancer through every facet of LLS’s mission:
  • More than doubling our investment in pediatric cancer research grants
  • Expanding education and support service for children and their families
  • Advocating for and driving policies to accelerate the development of new treatments and break down barriers to care
  • Launching LLS PedAL (Pediatric Acute Leukemia), a groundbreaking global precision medicine clinical trial in acute pediatric leukemia

And many LLS supported therapies not only help blood cancer patients but are now used to treat patients with rare forms of stomach and skin cancers. They're even being tested in clinical trials for patients with a range of cancers including lung, brain, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers. LLS funded drugs are now being tested for patients with other non-cancerous diseases like Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis.

Please join me in supporting my campaign, my team, and LLS by making a donation to my fundraising campaign. Thanks to your support, my efforts, will help fund the therapies and treatments and help save lives today.

LLS's continued advancements over the years, are responsible for the blood cancer survival rate doubling and tripling; in some cases, the survival rate has even quadrupled.

All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible. With your donation, you’re not only support LLS research but patient services, advocacy, public and professional education, and community services as well. Together WE CAN FIND A CURE!

Please visit my fundraising webpage often and pass along the link to family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc. who might donate!  I recognize I need lots of support to reach my fundraising goal!

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

Help me BEAT blood cancers! 

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