Despite it's misguided label as a "good cancer," living with any chronic cancer is consequential. I know this personally, being diagnosed with Chromic Lymphocytic Leukemia in 2021. And I want to help change that reality. For myself, for those who are living with a blood cancer diagnosis, and for those who are caring for their loved ones on their pathway towards a cure.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) is the largest registered charitable health agency dedicated to supporting the blood cancer community in Canada. And I want to leverage my vast network to help build a team and raise a record amount of money for LLSC.

Why is this my mission? Because I know what it was like to be diagnosed, and in the most challenging of circumstances as well. Living in a foreign country, shortly after losing my dream job of 7 years, no health or life insurance, during a pandemic, all while a new trajectory needed to be set for my family's future into a very uncertain world.

Truth be told, I was not okay for a long period after being diagnosed. While there was some reassurance that the symptoms I had been experiencing had a cause, I lost all confidence in myself. I lost confidence in my body. And most importantly, I lost confidence in my ability to carve out a new life from the one I was leaving behind. Depression set in, then guilt about the depression. Guilt about not feeling more lucky for getting the "good cancer." I didn't tell most people. I felt isolated, even amongst those I did tell. I felt utterly alone in my struggle.

But it didn't have to be this way.

Two years ago, a dear old friend of mine led a team of individuals to help raise money for LLS. It turns out, Joel's dad passed away from a rare complication of CLL. After connecting and informing him of my diagnosis, we both agreed that this could be a way for me to help others, to connect with the vast supports of LLSC, and to ultimately heal...physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In just under two weeks, I helped raise over $12k towards his team's winning total of $220,343!

This fundraiser was an important step towards telling my story, and in accepting my new reality as a person living with a chronic cancer.

In the time since, I've learned of the countless supports LLSC has to offer, whether it be funding cutting edge research, offering practical support and advocacy to help empower cancer patients, or providing financial assistance for those with significant travel costs for treatment. I've even become a part of their First Connections Program, where I can offer support to those newly diagnosed with a condition like mine, helping them to navigate the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis, and to normalize their experience, no matter how it manifests. To feel awful after a life changing event like this is normal. What LLSC offers is the chance to not suffer alone.

And this is where I need your help. I have set an audacious goal of raising $500,000(!) in the next 10 weeks for their Visionaries of the Year campaign. This would be a record breaking amount. I'm doing this because I believe in all of you. I believe my story will resonate with enough of you for us reach this goal. I believe that you too have others, in your families, in your neighborhoods, in your workplaces, that have dealt with a blood cancer diagnosis, and have seen firsthand the damage cancer has on them and their loved ones. What I need right now, just as much as donations, is a team. With a massive surge of individuals reaching out their networks, their corporate connections, their vendors for 10 weeks and asking to support this important and worthwhile cause, I know we can reach this goal!

Never fundraised before? Don't worry. LLSC has a support staff to help you along the way, as well as my support.

One of my key themes for this fundraiser will be faith. The world is experiencing so much turmoil right now, it's hard to have faith in much of anything. But faith and action and intrinsically linked. Taking great actions require leaps of faith. And those actions help to inspire others to do the same. I want this campaign to be about our collective faith in humanity to make a better world for our communities. Let this be your vehicle in this moment, and let's go break some records and end blood cancer, together!