Hi! I am Katie Opack, a junior at Stone Ridge School Of The Sacred Heart. I am honored to be participating in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's 2020 Students of the Year (SOY) campaign for the Cadets4aCure team. SOY is 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.

I am raising funds in honor of my great-grandma, Sadie Opack, who died of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and all of those who are currently fighting or are in remission from any type of cancer. Unfortunately, it seems like most people are affected by or know someone who is affected by cancer. With your help, I want to bring those numbers down. 

Every donation, big or small, is greatly appreciated. Each donation helps fund therapies, treatments, and helps save lives. Help me support LLS in their mission of finding cures for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families. I need your help to reach my goal ($4,000). All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax-deductible. Thank you again for your support, for visiting my page, and helping me reach my goal. 

Please forward this message to your friends and family who might like to make a difference.

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

I am honored to be a part of the SOY initiative for 2020. LLS is making a huge difference in the face of blood cancer. 

• 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 - LLS’ research reaches all types of cancer - not just blood cancer

• 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:

  • 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

  • More than doubling our investment in pediatric cancer research grants

Many treatments LLS researched has 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. 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.

Thanks to your support, my efforts, will help fund the therapies and treatments and help save lives today.  With your donation, you do 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 need lots of support to reach my fundraising goal!

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

Thank you again :)