Markey Patient Named LLS "Man of the Year"

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 24, 2013) — University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center patient Kristopher Shera was named the local 2013 Man of the Year by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Kentucky & Southern Indiana Chapter earlier this month.

Each year, the LLS conducts a 10-week Man & Woman of the Year fundraising campaign. Participants from across the nation raise money in honor of children in their area who are impacted by blood cancer. The candidates were judged solely on their success in raising money to help the LLS fund research to find cures and better therapies and provide information and support to blood cancer patients and their families.

Shera raised $24,561 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the most money raised of any candidate in the local chapter, earning him the Man of the Year title. All together, the 10 candidates in the Kentucky & Southern Indiana Chapter raised more than $116,000.

The candidates competed in honor of the LLS’s Boy & Girl of the Year: Ryan Northcutt, a 5-year-old boy receiving maintenance chemotherapy for Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and Laekin Risinger, a 5-year-old girl who is a Burkitt’s lymphoma survivor.

To Shera — who received treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma at Markey — just seeing the amount of money raised to help the LLS fund future research for blood cancers was its own reward.

"Everyone involved in this campaign has their hearts in the right place," Shera said. "We raised more than $116,000 to help fund blood cancer research and support for patients. I feel like everyone deserves recognition."

MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Perry, (859) 323-2399 or allison.perry@uky.edu