Welcome To My Fundraising Page!

As some of you might already know, my name is Raiha Javaid and I am a sophomore at the Madeira School. I live in Clifton, Virginia with my parents and my younger brother. Some of my hobbies include swimming, playing the piano, volunteering, and spending time with my friends & family.

I am honored and very excited to be participating 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 year, my team, MAD CHAMPS (consisting of Bharathi Kalavala, Karmen Gill, Suhani Malhotra, Moniola Odunsi, Meera Bhungalia, and myself) and I are beyond ecstatic to compete to serve LLS' purpose. 

I am raising funds in honor of those who are currently battling or are in remission from blood cancer. 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 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.

Not only is my team raising funds for those affected by blood cancer, but also to honor our hero, Vishav Chopra. Vishav Chopra is fourteen years old and currently lives in Springfield, Virginia, with his parents and sister, Simran. When Vishav was four years old, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). He battled with leukemia for three and a half years and completed his last treatment on November 9, 2012. He has been in remission for 7 years now. As of today, Vishav plays the trumpet for the South County High School Marching Band. He also hopes to become an Automotive Engineer due to his steady and ongoing passion for cars.

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 in 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 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 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(s) 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!

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