Three years ago, on January 4th 2018, my uncle was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). It was very difficult and confusing to wrap my head around. It didn’t make sense. It was unbelievable at first because nobody in my family has had a blood cancer before.  He beat it for the first time two years ago and was in remission for a couple months. Unfortunately, it came back in late summer 2018. His medical team responded with an experimental treatment that got him back into remission for the second time, and by all accounts he was doing really well considering the circumstances. However, in December of 2019 he got the news that he relapsed... again.  He never complained, nor gave up.  Sadly, in mid April we got the news that he caught an otherwise seemingly benign virus, and with no immune system it’s very hard to fight off even minor illnesses.  With that being said our beloved Joel (son, husband, father, brother, uncle, Saba, friend colleague and more) passed away in the morning of April 21st, 2020.  

The doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center worked as hard as they can to help Joel and continue to tirelessly help other families/patients in need.  However, they need YOUR help!  By donating to my campaign, it helps Joel’s research team and other blood cancer researchers across the country, learn more about the disease, and provide resources and support to the doctors and people in need to ensure that one day everyone with a blood cancer will survive and live a healthy life once again.

I have been nominated as a 2021  Student of the Year candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).  In 2019, I was the winner of the Vermont Student of the Year campaign and this year I’m competing in the Upstate New York chapter to raise funds to find a cure to beat blood cancers. It would be a great honor if I could be the top fundraiser again, significantly helping to raise funds to support research, patients, and their families.  Every donation counts, regardless of the amount. We are all touched by cancer in some way and with LLS, 78 cents of every donated dollar goes to research and direct support of cancer patients, including defraying treatment costs and supporting programming.

Thank you for visiting my fundraising page, welcome!

I encourage you to 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.

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