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Fundraiser keeps money at home, and keeps WNY alive

Posted at 6:00 AM, Oct 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-19 10:11:42-04

“This month October makes 7 years and 9 month since they gave me a maximum of 12 months to live.”

October is a very special month for 60 year old Daniel Robertson and many others living with blood cancers in Western New York.

“I had always read about ‘Light the Night’, and it was something I always wanted to do, but I was never well enough to do the walk.”

Friday, October 19, is the 20th year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s annual Light the Night walk.

It will be held in Delaware Park with festivities starting at 7 p.m. 

Campaign manager Kathleen Davis says the walk last year raised more than $500,000. 

This year, they hope to top that goal.

She says that the support Western New York gives to this cause could have a lot to do with how unique blood cancer is.

“It doesn’t discriminate by gender, it doesn’t discriminate by race, it is the type of disease that can really affect anybody, and I think it’s kind of unique in that in the cancer world. 

Robertson says that it’s because of the money raised at walks like this that he was given a different kind of news from his doctor just months ago.”

“I’m not only still alive, but in July I was ruled as cancer free.”:

The best part about this walk, said Davis, is that a lot of the money is kept at home not put into a big national fund.

“We really keep the money local, said Davis.

“And even though we are a national organization all of the funds that are raised are really going to help patients right here.”

The walk starts tonight at Delaware Park at 7 o’clock. 

You can register on site, or you can donate here.

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