My campaign for LLS Woman of the Year 2016

Hello blogosphere!  Thank you for coming to my Katie Daily for LLS Woman of the Year blog page! I am so honored to be nominated, but more importantly, determined to raise a ton of money as a nominee for this amazing campaign that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has put on.  Many of you have received letters and emails explaining what this campaign is all about, but for those of you who haven't, here it is...

My mother, Ginger Kramer Upton, was a great mom.  I hate writing "was".  It makes me cry when I do it.  I get angry, I feel cheated, I am sad.  Lymphoma took her away from me, my dad, my sister, her grandchildren, and all of her family and friends way to soon.  Her illness was hard on her, and on us.  She suffered and we suffered her loss.  Those of us left behind have only survived through God's Grace and knowing that she rests in eternal peace.  Since we lost her I have longed to find a way to honor her and somehow capture a silver lining to our great loss.  That is where this campaign, which focuses on raising funds, awareness, and advocacy for those battle blood cancers, like my mom did, comes in.  If we can raise a huge amount of money, money that makes a difference, then all of this loss will not be in vain, and hopefully other families will not have to go through what we did.

This campaign is a 10-week long effort where every dollar we (my Team Awesome and me!) raise counts as a vote for me to be the LLS 2016 Gulf Coast Chapter's Woman of the Year.  Money raised is used to fund groundbreaking research and clinical trials that increase treatments, survival rates, and save lives.  The research funded by LLS not only benefits blood cancers, but is also being used to advance the treatments of many other types of cancers such as stomach, skin, lung, brain, and breast as well as auto-immune disorders like Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Multiple Sclerosis.  It is a friendly competition that makes a real difference.

Thank you for visiting my page.  You can click this link which will take you to my donation home page.  I hope you also sign up for the email notifications.  I will be using this blog to update everyone on my campaign as well as doing a series of interviews with those people in my life who have impacted my personal Leukemia & Lymphoma story.  These are wonderful people who have fought, and/or are still fighting these cancers, but have all captured their own silver lining and I want to tell you about it!

Finally, the other day I picked up one of my childrens' books and inside there was a note from my mom that cited Philippians 1:3, "I thank my God every time I remember you".

The note from my mother I only recently discovered.  Written inside the book If I Could: A Mother's Promise.

I do thank God for all of my memories that I have of and with my mother.  Please help me honor those memories and make our silver lining brighter!

My sincerest thanks for your generosity and support,

Katie Daily