Light The Night

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk funds treatments that are saving the lives of patients today. LLS is making cures happen by providing patient support services, advocacy for lifesaving treatments and the most promising cancer research anywhere. And it's all happening now. Not someday, today.

Friends, families and co-workers form fundraising teams, and millions of consumers help by donating at retail outlets. These efforts culminate in inspirational, memorable evening Walks in nearly two hundred communities each fall across North America.

Before I was even asked, I requested to be Corporate Walk Chair of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Light The Night Walk for a second year. After last year’s event concluded, I realized that I was still getting to know what this wonderful organization does and the impact it can have on the lives of blood cancer patients and their families. Before I tell you what I have learned so far, I am asking you to join me in this year’s campaign. Here is why: 

The mission of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is plain and simple: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. When LLS was founded in 1949, a blood cancer diagnosis was almost always fatal. Thanks in part to innovative research funded by LLS, survival rates have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled for blood cancer patients. Since its founding, LLS has invested more than $750 million in research specifically targeting leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. In my role as CEO of Redwood Regional Medical Group where a significant part of our practice works with cancer patients, I see every day the need for that to continue.

In my first year as Corporate Walk Chair of Light The Night, I had the opportunity to meet cancer patients, their family members and friends. I saw first hand how raising funds for LLS can make a difference. And blood cancer research is the gateway to other cancer treatments and cures. Did you know 49 percent of the drugs approved by the FDA in the last 10 years for cancer were first approved to treat blood cancers? Many of these drugs are now being used to treat or are being tested to treat other cancers like breast, brain, lung, stomach, pancreatic, prostate and ovarian cancers.

I’ll be frank, the Light The Night Walk is a fundraising event. I want you to participate because every additional participant means more potential dollars will be raised to make a difference in the lives of blood cancer patients. In 2010, the three San Francisco Bay Area walks raised more than $776,000 for blood cancer research and patient services. The 2011 fundraising goal for the three walks in San Francisco, the East Bay and the North Bay is $838,000. Come join me so we can go beyond that goal.

The event itself is very fun. Light The Night Walk participants walk an easy, 2-mile route carrying illuminated balloons — white for survivors, red for supporters and gold to honor those who have lost their battle with cancer — through downtown Santa Rosa. It’s open to all and does not require a particular level of fitness.

 - Wayne Fairchild

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