Hi everyone!

My name is Khushi Rana, and I am a junior at McLean High School. I am so proud to announce that I have joined Team Conor’s Crew in memory of Conor Kehoe. Mike Kehoe, the cousin of Conor, is our team leader, and from what I have heard along with the rest of the team from Mike, Conor was full of love and was overall amazing. He loved dinosaurs, which is the reason why the dinosaur is the team mascot for us.

The reason for why I want to assist in the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma is bigger than just knowing it is a dangerous issue that needs to be solved. Although that is more than enough to know you want to fight against it, the issue of cancer overall hits pretty close to home for my family and me.

When I was only 9 years old, my family and I were simply just sitting in a restaurant having dinner. Everything was going fine, until my parents had a fearful look on their faces, and all of a sudden asked me if I had noticed there had been something growing on my neck that they hadn’t seen until that moment.

Once we got it checked out by multiple doctors, they finally gave us our answer on why there was an abnormal piece of skin growing on me: I had cancer. Hashimoto thyroiditis and papillary thyroid cancer, to be exact. I didn’t have a simple way of just removing it with a few treatments here and there, it was a type of thyroid cancer that these thyroid-specialized doctors hadn’t seen before. It required not just treatment, but for the doctors to perform unfamiliar procedures on me like they never had to before.

Thankfully, I was one of the lucky ones. After one and a half years of surgery and constant treatments, I was finally able to be established as “cancer-free”.

In my eyes, my story is incomparable to those who have a limited chance of being able to free themselves of this life-threatening disease of cancer. Although LLS may not specifically be to combat the type of cancer I had, the organization has been able to advance blood cancer research. Any progress towards battling cancer as a whole is significant to me as a Cancer Survivor.

Fighting to solve the ongoing issue of cancer has been a difficult one we have been trying to further for decades now. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has, however, had noteworthy breakthroughs in cancer research that makes me gain hope for these patients. With your help, we could come even closer to ending the cancer battle, which is why I ask you to help us today and to think about donating to LLS. Help bring us one step closer to making a difference for the lives of blood cancer patients. Help us put an end to Leukemia and Lymphoma.

I have signed up to save lives with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and am working to raise as much as possible over the next 7 weeks. Every dollar raised counts as one vote for my campaign. The candidate(s) whose team tallies the most votes earns the prestigious title of Student or Students of the Year. Will you help me earn that title?
 
As you know, everyone wins when cancer loses. Thanks to your support, my efforts will help fund therapies and treatments that are saving lives. Over the years, support from people like you has been responsible for the blood cancer advancements that have doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled the survival rate for some blood cancers.
 
Many LLS-supported therapies not only help blood cancer patients but are also now used to treat patients with rare forms of stomach and skin cancers and are in clinical trials for patients with lung, brain, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers. And LLS-funded drugs like targeted therapies and immunotherapies are now saving thousands of lives every day.
 
We really are getting close to our goal of a world without blood cancers!
 
All donations are greatly appreciated and tax-deductible. They'll not only support LLS research, but patient services, advocacy, public and professional education, and community services as well.
 
Please visit my website often and tell friends who would also like to donate!
 
On behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, thank you for your support! For more information about LLS, please visit www.lls.org