Hi! Welcome to Emma Nelsen's fundraising page. This year, I am a part of the Students of the Year (SOY) program that is raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). This is my first year doing this, and I am very happy to work together with Team SWAG (Students With a Goal) to raise the most money! Our team goal this year is $50,000, and it would be amazing if you could help us reach this. All it takes is a couple of clicks on the left side of this page.

Students of the Year is a seven week-long campaign in which high school students across the nation raise as much as they can for LLS. All donations will go directly towards LLS's mission to find cures for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and their families. LLS has funded 53 of 62 FDA approved treatments since 2017, and several blood cancer therapies are now being used in clinical trials with other cancers and diseases such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes. 

There are a few reasons why I decided to join Students of the Year. The primary reason was that my grandpa, Jim Nelsen (pictured above), was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) a few years ago. Luckily, after months of treatment, he was able to receive a bone marrow transplant, and is now cancer-free! However, I realize that many patients and their families are not as lucky, and I want to do what I can to work towards a cure.

Another reason that I joined is that cancer patients have been struggling even more than usual recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer patients have weaker immune systems, and are therefore more susceptible to the effects of the virus. For this reason, it is very important that these patients do not contract the virus, which means that they have to worry about buying extra PPE while also struggling with the common economic issues of the pandemic. Please keep this in mind if you are considering donating.

I really hope that you can help me by donating this year! I appreciate any donation, big or small, and if you can't donate, please share the link to this page with your friends and family. Thank you for visiting my page, and I hope you have a great day!

For more information about LLS, please visit lls.org