Most of us hear about devastating cancer stories constantly, and we still shrug it off and send our condolences, but that isn’t enough. After hearing about my friend Ainona’s mom, and her struggles with cancer until her last days, the stories I’d always been hearing about cancer hit closer to home than ever before. When Ainona approached me with the idea to join as co-candidates for a campaign run by the LLS, I decided it was time to stop just hearing and start doing. Research by LLS will help to better the lives of cancer patients everywhere, not just ones with Leukemia and Lymphoma. Research like this has helped people like Ainona’s mom, even if not directly connected. Research like this will help end cancer. I am excited to start the campaign with my co-candidate Ainona Black-Planas and make a difference! 

Hi Everyone! My name is Matthew Wilken, and I am a senior at James Madison High School in Vienna, Virginia. I currently split my time between my mom at one house and my dad and step-mom at the other, all of whom reside in Vienna. I transfer between the two with my brother, who also attends James Madison High School as a sophomore. I have a step-brother who completed his bachelor's at the University of Virginia and is currently employed at Epic in Madison, Wisconsin. I also have a step-sister who completed her bachelor's at James Madison University and her doctorate of physical therapy at Mary Baldwin. She recently got hired and resides near Lexington, Virginia! I have lived in the Washington DC area my whole life, being born at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Georgetown, DC, and growing up in Rockville, Maryland, and Vienna, Virginia.

I am an athlete at heart, so I enjoy my time on the Madison Crew Team as well as the Blue Dogs hockey team at Fairfax Ice Arena. Previously, I played with the Reston Raiders Hockey Club for close to 10 years! I also really enjoy quality time with family and friends whether it be at home or traveling and exploring new places. I also love adventure sports, such as mountain biking, white water rafting, and hiking. I am also a student pilot, working on the basics of flight, and I hope to get my full license shortly. When I head off to college next year, I will be studying Civil Engineering.

Thank you for visiting my fundraising page, welcome!

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 for 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!

For more information about LLS, please visit lls.org