Inspirational Stories

Heather Banks draws her inspiration from her good friend, who has been fighting non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma for the past 10 years and her college best friend who is a survivor. She is motivated by her friends’ strength, determination, and positivity. In times of feeling helpless, she channels that energy and puts it into her sewing machine.  

 Heather has taken part in the Light The Night Walk since 2015 and has raised over $40,000 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). She started an Etsy store in the fall of 2017, selling fleece blankets and beautiful handmade t-shirt quilts, in which 100% of her profits go to LLS.  

The pandemic didn’t slow her down either! She made over 1,500 masks between March and November of 2020 and raised $18,348 for last year’s Light The Night virtual walk, $11,000 of which were from mask donations!  

Heather is also a fifth-grade teacher, but says, “The time and energy that I put into fundraising has become a passion, and almost a second full-time job, but I can’t imagine not doing everything in my power to raise as much money as I can.”  

She still feels like there is more to be done and will continue to do all she can. “Thank you to LLS for everything you have done for my friends and the millions of other people whose lives have been so brutally affected by blood cancer!”  

Written by LLS Story Volunteer, Grace Oliva