Please join me in supporting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) by making a donation to my fundraising campaign. Thanks to your support, my efforts, will help fund the therapies and treatments and help save lives today.
When my Dad was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 (AML), I was only four years old and didn’t really know what was going on. All I remember was that I could only visit him in the lobby of the hospital. After 12 years, I now understand the tragedy of blood cancer and how close I came to losing my Dad.
AML is short for acute myeloid leukemia. Basically it is cancer of the blood where a person can no longer produce effective white blood cells. I learned that my Dad only had a 40% chance to live and that while he made it though, none of his cancer friends survived. I didn’t know why God did this to our family, but now I know that He did this so that I can help others. I want to make a difference!
Recently, I learned about the Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s Student of the Year Campaign. I immediately knew this was for me. …Nineteen high school students in Atlanta, all from different backgrounds with different stories and motivations, competing with each other for a common goal… Raise as much money as possible for Leukemia and Lymphoma research in six weeks... I want to be a part of this type of change.
LLS’s mission is to find cures for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and Myeloma. Last year alone, LLS invested nearly $80 million in cutting-edge research to help the nearly 1.2 million people in the U.S. who are living with, or are in remission from, a blood cancer. One of the scary facts I learned is that approximately every 4 minutes one person in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer. But funding research is making a difference. Since the early 1960s, five-year survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. In 1964, the five-year survival rate for children with the most commonly diagnosed leukemia was 3%. Today it’s approximately 90%. I want to be part of making this the norm for all blood cancer patients!
On behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere I thank you for your support!
For more information about LLS, please visit lls.org
