This year, we are running our campaign in honor of our team members, close friends and my mom and aunt who have battled cancer, as well as our Honored Hero Max Hinojosa, a Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) survivor.

Max was diagnosed with JMML – an extremely rare form of leukemia – at just one month old. I can’t imagine how his parents felt! After weeks of treatments, surgeries, and procedures, Max’s medical team decided to try a drug that had been funded by LLS.  Max underwent treatment for almost a year before his body became stable, free from any medical intervention.

Today, Max is a healthy 7-year-old, the biggest Stars hockey fan, a voracious reader, and a kind and thoughtful young man. He wants to be a firefighter when he grows up just like his dad, Cristian, a captain with the Dallas Fire Department. Please read Max’s full bio HERE: bit.ly/MaxHinojosa 

I wanted to share Max’s story with you because Max is real kid, right here in Dallas, that LLS helped to save. His life – and Cristian’s – would be much different today if LLS hadn’t been able to fund the crucial research that led to his life-saving treatment. 

Your dollars do matter. Your dollars are literally saving lives in our community every day. 

So, thank you. Thank you for supporting me, Team Stronger Together, Max, Cristian, my mom, aunt, and blood cancer patients across the globe whose lives have been saved because of invaluable support from donors like you. 

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) has become a passion for me. Family is important to me as a single child, but eradicating blood cancers is even more important. My mom is a Leukemia survivor. Thanks to a clinical trial at MD Anderson she has been in remission since 2017. To further research and improve the lives of blood cancer patients and their families, I accepted the challenge and opportunity to be a candidate for the LLS Student of the Year. The LLS Student of the Year is a philanthropic leadership campaign for local high school aged students. I have put together a team of students and adults in my community to help support our fundraising efforts. It is time to stop the hold that blood cancer has on my family and many others like us. Your donation can help sponsor further research, fund patient support, and fight for a cure! 

We are Stronger Together, and together we can make a difference.

I am honored to participate as a candidate for the 2021 Students of the Year program, 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. I am proud to support my team and am raising critical dollars in honor of a young patient hero, Max Hinojosa, son of Dallas Fire Rescue Captain Christian Hinojosa, who is currently in remission from a blood cancer. Each dollar is a vote. The candidate team that raises the most money at the end of the seven weeks is named Student 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.

Since the early 1960s, five-year survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. And many LLS supported therapies not only help blood cancer patients but are helping patients with other cancers and serious diseases. In fact, drugs first approved for blood cancers are now approved to treat patients with stomach cancers, skin cancers, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

We really are changing the face of blood cancer!

All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible. They'll not only support LLS-funded research but will help provide critical information and support for patients, and support advocacy for laws to ensure patients can access the care and treatments they need.

Please visit our website often and bring 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.