Each year, in communities across the country, dynamic, passionate candidates engage in a spirited ten-week fundraising competition to earn The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's "Man & Woman of the Year" titles, by raising funds for blood cancer research. Our exciting 2010 campaign will start with a fun Kick Off event in early April. The fundraising competition will culminate with a celebration of everyone's efforts at the black-tie Grand Finale Gala on Saturday, June 12th at the Ritz-Carlton, with dinner, drinks, entertainment, dancing, and a fabulous silent auction. Last year Ari Jones of Moms for a Cure and Hap Peden of IBM, were named The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Man & Woman of the Year. The 2009 candidates collectively reached a new national record of $910,000 raised for blood cancer research and patient services. We are on the road to raising $1 million!

Honorees

All participants raise funds in honor of the Girl and Boy of the Year.  The 2010 Girl of the Year is Skyler Hundley.  Skyler was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in April 2007 at the age of four. While there were some small setbacks along the way, her leukemia is now in remission, and she completed her treatments in June 2009. Through out it all, Skyler always maintained her positive outlook and never lost her now-renowned "big, bright smile." The 2010 Boy of the Year is Andrew Luckabaugh. Andrew was diagnosed with Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin's Disease Stage 1b one week after his seventh birthday in 2006.  What took nine long months to diagnose took only four short months to treat with a combination of six chemotherapy drugs.  Now, Andrew is a 10 year old fourth grader who looks and acts like any other kid his age and he hopes to help raise awareness and money to help other people fight this disease and find a cure for it!

History

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Man & Woman of the Year campaign began in 1990 in San Francisco to honor John Spencer, a valued employee at Hastings Clothier in San Francisco and a Society volunteer. Spencer died of leukemia at the age of 39. It was in John's memory that Hastings began supporting the Society's Northern California Chapter with the San Francisco Man & Woman of the Year event. Now, more than 40 Man & Woman of the Year campaigns occur across the nation, making this a highly visible fundraising program.

The Reason

Although someone new is diagnosed with a blood cancer every four minutes, there is great hope for the future. LLS is the world's largest national voluntary health organization dedicated to curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin?s disease and myeloma, and to improving the quality of life of patients and families.

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