Thank you for visiting my fundraising page, welcome!

I encourage you to hear my story and join me in supporting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) by making a donation to my fundraising campaign. By donating to LLS, you support the many facets of LLS’s mission work from investing in groundbreaking research, providing education and support to patients, and advocating at the state and federal level for legislation to help those living with cancer. My appreciation for your support cannot be overstated — each and every dollar donated to LLS brings us closer to our goal to end blood cancer and makes an impact for cancer patients and their families.

In September of 2020, I was diagnosed with spinal tumors. It all started in the spring when I had severe back pain while doing every day activities such as playing sports, carrying around my backpack, or just lying in bed. Being the fourth child, my parents weren't too concerned with complaints of back pain because they've already "seen it all". In the summer I finally convinced my parents to take me to the doctor to get an x-ray. The x-rays didn't show anything wrong with my spine. After this, I really started to question my pain tolerance. I started to hide my pain, and suck it up because there was no explanation for why I was feeling this way. One day I came home from cheer practice crying in pain and barely able to walk, so my parents decided that I needed to get an MRI. I was so tired of everyone discounting my pain, so I began to pray that something would show up on the MRI. I wanted everyone would know I wasn't overexaggerating or looking for attention, and that my pain was real. Unfortunately I did not understand the gravity of my wishes. After the MRI results came back, my entire life was flipped upside down. 

Never in a million years would I have thought that I had tumors in my spinal chord. Within a week the doctors had scheduled a serious spinal surgery to resect the largest tumor, and they told me that I had to recieve proton radiation for six weeks after the surgery to stop the other tumors from growing. I was in the hospital for about a week after the surgery, and out of school for three. I am not gonna lie, the month after surgery was tough. The little things would really frustrate me, such as not being able to pick up my phone after dropping it on the floor or not being able to wash my own body without assistance. What mainly upset me was that my cheer season was over. I had finally maken varisty cheer, and it was all taken away from me in the blink of an eye. I would sit in the hospital bed crying while watching videos of the cheer team perform the routine without me. It was really hard for me to adjust from being an active teenager to lying in bed all day. 

About a month after the surgery I started radiation. I would have to drive thirty minutes out to the medical center every morning before school. I constantly felt nauseos and tired every day at school but I couldn't go home, I had already missed too much school. At the radiation center, I would see all kinds of people. Infants, toddlers, middle aged adults, and a lot of elderly people. A lot of these people were going through chemotherapy as well, and were very sick. Every morning I would pass a bald little boy bawling crying to his mom about how badly he didn't want to go in and recieve radiation that day. It was heartbreaking to see it, and I felt so helpless because there was nothing anyone could do to make him feel better. I finished radiation a couple of weeks ago, and I am so happy that it's over. 

I know everyone understands that cancer is bad, but no one really sees what happens behind the scenes. It's the needles, weekly bloodwork, two hour long scans, or even the daily sprints to the bathroom because you think you're going to barf.  Cancer isn't the type of thing where you can get the "all clear" and you're done. It's something that follows you for the rest of your life, and you constantly feel so powerless because there is nothing you can do about it. Although it is tragic experience, I am so grateful that God has put me on this journey. It has taught me so much about myself and what's important in life. After coming to this realization, I felt so silly for ever feeling bad for myself. I see life in a whole new perspective now. I have learned to appreciate the little things in life and take joy where I can get it. Cancer can take such a physical and emotional toll on your health so it is important to stay positive and think optimistically even when it seems like things can't get any better. 

I thank God every day that he blessed my family to be fortunate enough to be able to pay for all my medical necessities. I can't even begin to imagine the stress put on my family if they weren't able to pay my medical bills, or if there wasn't a successful treatment option. This is why your donation matters. YOU can save lives. Your donation will change the lives of those suffering from blood cancer and will personally change their lives for the better. As a global leader in the fight to end cancer, LLS is committed to doing more for blood cancer patients and families than any organization in the world. LLS’s signature fundraising campaigns drive critical support for its mission, including a nearly $1.3 billion investment in cutting edge cancer research worldwide since it was founded in 1949. Since the 1960s, survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled.

Every facet of LLS’s mission – research, education and support, and policy and advocacy – work in harmony to put blood cancer patients and their families first. LLS has helped millions impacted by cancer throughout its more than 70-year history, even funding breakthrough blood cancer research to advance lifesaving treatments and cures that is now helping patients with other cancers and diseases. That is why at LLS we say that beating cancer is in our blood.

Please visit my website as often as you can and share it with everyone you know who would also like to join us in the fight against cancer. Together, we have the power, the passion and the resolve to achieve a world without blood cancer. All donations are tax-deductible.

On behalf of cancer patients and their families everywhere, I sincerely thank you for your support!

For more information about LLS, please visit lls.org