In my sophomore year of high school, my boyfriend, Ryan Swindell was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer. Seeing him going through treatment and fighting his battle was hard. Especially since I couldn't do much to help but watch, and that was not enough for me. I decided to try and make something good out of a hard situation. So, I came up with the idea of having an art exposition; where local and high school artists created their own works of art and sold them to the public. At the event, I also had musicians playing to lighten the mood even more. All of the proceeds were donated towards cancer research. Now that I am a sophomore in college and Ryan is now cancer-free, I have decided that it is time to have another art exposition. Just because Ryan is cancer free, that does not mean that lymphoma is gone or that people are still being diagnosed every day. Every year, more than 80,000 people are diagnosed with lymphoma - that means every seven minutes, someone in the United States receives a lymphoma diagnosis. Today, more than 700,000 people are currently living with this disease. To me, it is time to find a cure for lymphoma, for all cancers. And until we are able to do that, to be able to find treatments that are not as harsh on a person's body and to try and make the process of beating cancer easier all together. Cancer has taken too many things and people from us and now it is time to make something good out of something so horrible and take our stand.
