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When Savanna complained of back pain and had leg bruises, her parents took her to an urgent care facility, which then sent her to the emergency room for extensive testing. A bone marrow biopsy confirmed a leukemia diagnosis and she began a two-year protocol of blood transfusions, chemotherapy and spinal tap injections.
Recognizing that the family needed something positive in their lives, the DiFatta family turned to fundraising to support the largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer – The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), which has invested over $1 billion in research to advance therapies and save lives.
Research advances in recent decades have led to high survival rates, thanks to the investment of organizations such as LLS. In 1964, a child’s chance of surviving ALL was 3 percent. Today, more than 90 percent of children aged 15 and younger survive, according to LLS.
Light The Night, LLS’s largest campaign, inspires people to create fundraising teams to support the LLS mission of curing blood cancer. After hearing about a local walk, a friend of the Difatta family formed a team in Savanna’s name in 2013 to raise money for cancer research and patient services. Team Savanna has raised over $85,000 since their formation.
Savanna is an LLS all-star. She was one of the honorees of the 2014 Westchester County Light The Night Walk, one of the child models for the LLS-Burlington campaign, the Girl of the Year for the Man and Woman of the Year campaign, and is finishing her last treatment in November.
To learn more about Light The Night, or to find a walk near you, visit http://www.lightthenight.org/ctwhv/.
