As students who want to make a difference in our community, we're honored to be candidates 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. The three of us, Ryan McCaffery, Grace Moussouri and Landis Mangum, are juniors at Dunwoody High School. We have been personally impacted by blood cancer, and other forms of cancer and hope to make an impact on not only the families and patients from Dunwoody, but across the world. While many of you have been impacted by these life threatening diseases, our Atlanta campaign specially honors a young patient, Autumn Murray, who is currently in remission from lymphoblastic lymphoma and gets to attend high school in Atlanta thanks to treatment funded by LLS. Therefore, we are proud to lead team CUREageous in raising critical dollars to eradicate blood cancer. Each dollar makes an impact, so we hope you will join our cause.

Since the 1960s, five-year survival rates for blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled. LLS has helped contribute to much of this progress, such as advancing 41 out of 47 FDA approved treatments since 2017. 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.

The candidate team that raises the most money at the end of the seven weeks is named the Students of the Year. Our mission is not only to raise the most money but also to raise awareness about blood cancers and the amazing work that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is doing. 

All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax-deductible. They'll not only support LLS-funded research but will help provide critical care and support for patients, as well as support advocacy for laws that ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.

Any donation, big or small, can make a difference. On behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, thank you for your support!

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