Hello everyone,

Thank you for visiting my page! Many of us know someone who has been diagnosed with a form of cancer, and it has touched our lives in some way. My grandmother passed away in 2013 of non-smoking lung cancer, and we miss her every day and treasure her memory. Approximately 38.4% of men and women will be diagnosed with a form of cancer at some point during their lifetimes. Scientists are working hard to find a cure, but far too many people are losing their lives from this terrible illness. 

However, there is something promising: Since 2000, more than 40% of the new cancer therapies approved by the FDA started as blood cancer research. If you know someone suffering from cancer, a survivor, or someone who has passed away from it, a cure to many types of cancer can be found through blood cancer research. Your donations, right now are where everything starts. 

I am honored 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 (such as myself) 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.

I'm raising funds in honor of those who are currently battling or are in remission from blood cancer. This is sort of like a competition between my team and other teams from around the country. So every single donation will help our team to be named Students of the Year. Plus, it's for an incredible cause! I'll get to that in a sec. 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.

I'm so lucky to have been given the chance to participate in this. Nowadays, with all the technology we have, you can change the way things are with the click of a button. Sometimes you have to go out of your way (getting OUT the credit card, going ON to my webpage) but it's pretty easy and makes so much of a difference. I urge you to think about the many inconveniences that those suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma face daily. You can change that, literally right now, you have a lot of power in your hands to improve so many lives.

Here are some cool and interesting reasons why this campaign is so important

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
• Again, 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

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.

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. That's pretty crazy. Here's a visual.

If you have any friends, family or colleagues who have suffered from any kind of cancer, this is AN INCREDIBLE and very effective way of helping to find a cure. And it's just one donation away. So come on, make a difference because everything counts.

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. But we can do it!