Dear friends, family, and supporters,

You probably don’t remember what you were doing on April 5 last year. Just another spring day, right? But for Manai Hazlett, the up-and-coming star of the football team at my school, Del Norte High School, this was a day that completely changed the course of his life. On that Tuesday, Manai was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. He started chemotherapy immediately and endured eight months of a rigorous treatment schedule. As Manai told us, his “whole life was put on pause.” He was unable to participate in football his junior year and missed hours upon hours of school. It felt as if he knew almost nothing going into his battle with cancer and that he was “learning as he went.” Thankfully, Manai is currently in remission. But high school is supposed to be a time of learning, growth, and fun, not a time spent fighting for your life.

I have volunteered to serve as a 2020 Student of the Year candidate for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). This means that I will be leading a seven-week fundraising campaign to help battle the kinds of terrible cancer Manai and others like him face. Beginning January 16th and ending March 7th, Team Touchdown will be working with me to raise as much money as possible. Just think what a difference this money could make to those fighting blood cancer, and to help prevent others from ever having to! And we can do it with your help.

So why this organization? Over the past 70 years, LLS has devoted over $1.4 billion to cancer research. But they do more than just research: LLS also has support services and is working to change laws so that treatment is both easier to get and more effective once attained. And right now, LLS is working specifically to find better ways to treat blood cancers in children. I’m writing today because YOU can help us and victims of blood cancer everywhere by making a donation to LLS through my fundraising website.