This year I have been nominated as a candidate for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Student of the Year 2019 Campaign. The Kickoff is officially on February 21st, 2019, but my team and I have been working hard since August to raise awareness for life-threatening cancers such as Leukemia and Lymphoma by planning events, writing monthly newsletters, and much more! By doing this we hope to raise funds that can go towards covering a patient’s treatment or even to support the development of new cures! With your help, the SuperCureos can do our part in the fight against cancer!

Truth be told I was not sure what I was getting myself into by joining LLS in their Students of the Year Campaign. However, I did know that from my family’s own experience with cancer and other life-altering diseases like the one that inflicts my father, I wanted to be active in helping people with medical issues. Because of this, I became interested in a synthetic biology career. This process of gene editing opens the door for infinitely many cures for all diseases including cancer! This passion drove me to join LLS as I wanted to see from another perspective the process in which cures are developed and also meet the people in which this science would be helping. Although this is what I was looking for in joining Team SuperCureos. I have learned so much more. From the Spotlight Survivor, I assist my team in writing about a personal connection and from the people I have met from our events, I have learned that cancer can affect anyone. We all know about the devastation of cancer, but I don’t think I have truly understood its effect until real faces and real stories were put to it. This humanity drives me to work my absolute hardest in my Students of the Year Campaign to do my part in giving these real people another reason to hope.

I am honored to participate as a team member for the 2019 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 candidate and am raising critical dollars in honor of a young patient hero who is currently battling or is 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.