Thank you for visiting my fundraising page, welcome!

My name is Ibenka Espinoza and I am a junior at The Bullis School in Potomac, MD. Firstly, what a year it's been because of Covid, hopefully, this new year will be better so it can be normal once again as it was before Covid. Unfortunately, this horrible illness we call cancer is still being faced by families all over the world. By donating to my fundraiser page, I highly encourage you to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). You will support the many facets of LLS' mission work by contributing to LLS by investing in innovative research, providing patient education and support, and campaigning for legislation to benefit those living with cancer at state and federal levels. Every dollar donated to LLS gets us closer to our mission of ending blood cancer and has an impact on cancer patients and their families. My gratitude for your support for my team Fight 4 a Cure cannot be overstated.

In July of 2018, the summer of becoming a Freshman in Highschool I got diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. To be exact I have one mass in my neck and one in my chest. I have now a scar on my neck of the biopsy they did to diagnose what I had but never in my 17 years of living would I have thought that the 39.5% chances of getting diagnosed with cancer that I would be apart of that percentage. Once I was diagnosed I struggled very much emotionally because I just couldn't believe it. Thankfully the chemotherapy didn't affect me as much as I thought it would have. Like for example, chemotherapy is supposed to make you lose weight but for me, it did the complete opposite, it actually made me gain weight surprisingly but, there was this one time where the chemotherapy did affect me horribly. 

This one time after my chemo session I didn't feel that well like I usually felt. While driving home in the car I felt nauseous and dizzy; this was the first time that the chemo actually was making me feel this bad. The whole car ride home was horrible. My legs kept shaking I couldn’t keep still. Then when we finally got home I literally felt like I was going to pass out. I got out of the car and I literally ran to the door and once I opened the door I could not feel my legs. Like I almost fell to the ground but I did not. I kept myself together and pulled through. I managed to get myself to the couch and just rest there. Later that day my legs were in pain. My mom would massage my legs but it didn’t help because the pain was not leaving my legs. It got to the point where we almost went to the hospital. That is how bad it got.

Then 3 months later, In October, I was finally cancer-free. I officially rang the bell and it was such an emotional day. We were all crying like crazy but throughout all of those 4 months I had hope and I don't know what I would have ever done without having hope because believing in hope saved me. Believing in hope was the best decision I have ever made and I would not have changed that decision ever. Even though there might be hard times sometimes you just have to believe in hope for the bad or the good. 

Nobody should have to go through the emotional rollercoaster of having a friend or family member be diagnosed with cancer and having to lose a family member or friend to cancer either. I have made it my mission in life to try to do everything I can to save someone from taking this horrible disease away and you can help me by supporting my team Fight 4 a Cure, you are helping and supporting so many families that are battling cancer. My personal goal is to raise 3,000 dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I hope that you can help me reach my goal! 

I encourage you to join me in supporting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) by making a donation to my fundraising campaign. By donating to LLS, you support the many facets of LLS’s mission work from investing in groundbreaking research, providing education and support to patients, and advocating at the state and federal level for legislation to help those living with cancer. My appreciation for your support cannot be overstated — each and every dollar donated to LLS brings us closer to our goal to end blood cancer and makes an impact on cancer patients and their families.

As a global leader in the fight to end cancer, LLS is committed to doing more for blood cancer patients and families than any organization in the world. LLS’s signature fundraising campaigns drive critical support for its mission, including a nearly $1.3 billion investment in cutting edge cancer research worldwide since it was founded in 1949. Since the 1960s, survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled.

Every facet of LLS’s mission – research, education and support, and policy and advocacy – work in harmony to put blood cancer patients and their families first. LLS has helped millions impacted by cancer throughout its more than 70-year history, even funding breakthrough blood cancer research to advance lifesaving treatments and cures that is now helping patients with other cancers and diseases. That is why at LLS we say that beating cancer is in our blood.

Please visit my website as often as you can and share it with everyone you know who would also like to join us in the fight against cancer. Together, we have the power, the passion, and the resolve to achieve a world without blood cancer. All donations are tax-deductible.

On behalf of cancer patients and their families everywhere, I sincerely thank you for your support! No one should feel the suffering of having a loved one be diagnosed or losing a loved one from cancer. but we can beat it together so in the future may no one have to know that feeling!

Thank you for supporting me,

Ibenka Espinoza

Team Fight 4 a Cure

For more information about LLS, please visit lls.org