My name is Ethan Miller and I am a Junior at Monte Vista High School in Danville California.  I had the privilege of being nominated as a candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) 2022 East Bay Students of the Year campaign. Students of the Year is a seven-week leadership development program that runs from March 10th to April 30 to raise money and advocate for LLS. I am writing today to ask for your support of my campaign and LLS’s mission to find a cure for blood cancers and improve the quality of life for patients. 

The money raised helps LLS, the largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers, fund cutting-edge research, and treatments. In fact, the treatments that LLS is funding benefit non-blood cancer patients too. More than 40% of new cancer treatment drugs approved by the FDA since 2004 started as blood cancer drugs are now being applied in other forms of cancer. 

I am participating in the Students of the Year campaign in honor of my best friend Omar Sinan who passed away due to Leukemia in September of 2018. Omar was diagnosed with ALL [Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia] at the age of 3 years old. At age 11, he relapsed and beat it a second time. In June of 2018, he was diagnosed with AML [Acute Myeloid Leukemia], and after fighting for several months, he passed away in September of 2018. AML has fewer treatment options than any other cancer, and the five-year survival rate is 26 percent. Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer, every nine minutes someone dies, and I want to help in the effort to put an end to this.

My goal is to raise money in the fight for Omar, and families like Omar's that have been impacted by Leukemia as well as all cancers.

My campaign will provide support to the critical work of LLS in hopes that one day no one will have to grow up without the ones they love. I know that with your help, I can reach my goal and make a direct impact in the fight against blood cancers.  

I thank you in advance for partnering with a campaign so close to my heart, and please remember, every bit counts. I appreciate your support. Let’s link hands in the fight to end all Cancer!

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