Hello! My name is Nolyn Bartholomew and I am a candidate for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society SOY 2020 campaign! I am super excited for kickoff in a few days, and I feel so blessed for this opportunity. I wanted to state the reason why I am doing this campaign as a way to get to know me. I am not doing this campaign because of a personal experience with blood cancer, but because I want to fight for those who do. I want the people that are fighting for their life every day to know they have someone else fighting for them too. I want those who don't want their loved ones to go through the pain they did to know someone else is fighting for a cure. I feel this way because it is what I would want if I was having to fight for my life every day. That thought would bring me comfort. So I hope this campaign and my team, "Helping Hands", can help others realize there is someone else fighting for them too. Let's do this!

I am honored to participate as a team member for the 2020 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.