I am honored to participate as a team member for the 2021 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.

2020 was an immensely difficult year for so many. Often times, I felt that there was not much I could do to help others, especially with all the limitations due to COVID. A couple of our closest family friends had been greatly affected by cancer that year as well, which is the reason I truly want to do this. I became inspired and devoted to supporting all these patients who are suffering. So, when this opportunity presented itself, the question was not "why do it," but rather, "why not do it"? There are countless individuals who deserve to live their lives to the fullest, and I am so grateful and thrilled to be part of the change LLS is making in each of these people's lives. 

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.