About Me

My name is Sarah Rubin and I am a Candidate on team LoCo on Cancer '21.  I am a Junior at Woodgrove High School here in Loudoun County.  In the summer of 2015, my little sister was diagnosed with Leukemia and six weeks later my mom was diagnosed with Non-Hogkins Lymphoma. It was very hard for me to watch my mom and sister fight for their lives and not be able to do anything to help them. Luckily both of them came out on top and are cancer survivors, however, after watching what they went through both physically and mentally, I felt I needed to take action.  I had to do something to make a difference to ensure others didn't have to experience what my family did for those few years. I made a commitment to get involved in the fight against blood cancer and have been working with The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) for over 5 years now raising money and awareness for this cause. Specifically, over the past few years I have been helping out with The LLS Man and Woman of The Year campaign and participated in the 2019 Student of The Year Campaign as a team member and now to further my commitment, I decided that it was my turn to be a Candidate!

                        me :)

My Why

While my sister Iliana was battling this horrible disease, I had to watch her as she spent birthdays and other holidays in a hospital bed hooked up to monitors and chemo pumps, fighting back nausea and pain.  My sister was battling for her life in a hospital instead of going to school and playing with her friends. It was extremely hard watching her not able to participate in these normal activities. No child should have to go through this, especially at such a young age. Instead, they should be playing with their friends, having fun....just being a kid. Unfortunately, cancer deprived my sister of these normal activities and I couldn't do anything to help.  I had to watch my parents grieve, wishing that they could just take her home and let her be a normal child. Seeing your family have to go through that pain, makes you quickly realize that there are so many other people fighting for their lives like my mother and sister did. I was lucky in that both of them won their battle against cancer, but unfortunately, far too many people aren't as fortunate and lose their loved ones to this horrible disease.  I can't stand by and watch this happen to other families and this is WHY I am participating in this campaign. LLS and this campaign funds existing treatments and research for new treatments every day that saved my sister's life.                 

 What is LLS Student of The Year?

"Student of The Year is a seven-week initiative in which select high school students from around the country participate in a fundraising competition to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Each dollar is a vote. The team that raises the most money at the end of the seven weeks is named Student(s) of the Year. 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." -LLS

Thank you so much for your support and donations towards my campaign.  Your support is greatly appreciated! Your donations will go toward funding research that will hopefully find the cures needed for patients battling blood cancer, while also assisting patients and their families with their co-pays and other financial burdens.  Lastly, this money will go towards advocating for laws that will increase funding that will ultimately provide more federal funding for cancer research.  All donations to the LLS are tax-deductible.

                                       my amazing team!