Hi Friends! 

Thanks for vising my fundraising page! I am thrilled to be nominated for an ambitious challenge: a competition with other high school students to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) called Student of the Year. LLS is the largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers. Since 1949, they’ve provided over $1.2 billion in breakthrough research! Closer to home, LLS research helped save my life as well as my dad’s.

In February of 2007, my dad, Tim, was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). When he was just getting back on his feet, in October of 2007, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). We like to say that we won the cancer lottery. ;) My first day at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) included countless pokes and six bags of blood...SIX BAGS! Meanwhile, my dad was still in regular treatment at City of Hope. The oral medicine my dad took daily was a first generation chemotherapy developed through research sponsored by LLS. If it weren’t for that medicine and generous people who raised money for LLS, my dad wouldn’t be alive today. This is why it is crucial to continue funding LLS research -- the resources we raise now will lead to more advancements and cures.

I’ve had a long relationship with LLS-- from hospital visits early in my treatment, to being given the honor of Girl of the Year in 2010 for the Man and Woman of the Year campaign, National Girl of the year, Honored Hero for School and Youth Programs, and most recently the Honored Hero for the 2017 Student of the Year candidates. I’m really excited about Student of the Year as a new opportunity to give back.

I need you! Please join this fight and support my team by donating to my goal of raising (drumroll, please…) $100,000 for LLS! I’ve named my team “When Pigs Fly: Making the Impossible Possible” because I know we have the power to make a real impact in the lives of cancer patients everywhere. (Plus, flying pigs are pretty cute. They’re like baby angel pigs.)

When the campaign starts, I’ll be in my 10th year of being cancer free! I am so excited to celebrate by raising $10,000 per year to support research that will make sure other kids don’t have to go through the same difficult experience. My thoughts during the preparation of this campaign go to my friend Jordan Shahbaz who continues to power through a recent relapse of his leukemia and depends greatly on medical innovations. There are better treatments continually being developed by LLS funded researchers – and we believe these efforts will one day cure my dad who still takes a daily chemo pill.

Thank you for your time and for reading this letter. We can be the answer to curing cancer! Every donation - big or small - will make a difference!

Love,
Eva

Click the red DONATE button at the top of this page to give!

For more information about LLS, please visit www.lls.org.