WESTLAKE, Ohio — Lauren Larkin is a mother of four young children and a sister on a mission.
“This huge void that it’s in my life, this gut-wrenching feeling,” said Lauren Larkin, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Visionaries of the Year Candidate.
Larkin’s youngest sister, Katie McNally, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August of 2021. Sixteen months later, in December of 2022, McNally died.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. You feel like half of you is missing,” Larkin said.
She wears her sister’s name around her neck and keeps the memories in her heart.
Last fall, Larkin was nominated for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Visionaries of the year.
“I actually talked with Katie about doing this campaign, and Katie was like, 'Let’s do it,'” she said.
But after her youngest sister died, Larkin wasn’t so sure she could do it.
“I’m not going to lie — at first I was like, I wasn’t going to do this. I thought, how can I possibly do anything that involves this horrible disease?” Larkin said.
She decided to focus her grief on helping others. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Visionaries of the year is a 10-week fundraising campaign. She is up against 12 others in Northeast Ohio for the honor.
“I own my own small business with my girlfriend, and we don’t have big businesses backing us, we are asking our community, our family members, local establishments in the area to help us to back us,” Larkin said. Her team, Forever Katie Strong, has more than 20 fundraisers planned in 10 weeks.
“We have fundraisers at bars, we have a karaoke night, we have something at Play CLE where the kids can go and climb around, we have something for everyone, “ Larkin said.
It's a grassroots campaign and a labor of love.
“For our team, we say we’re very gritty because we are like on the streets,” she said.
“Something told me, maybe it was Katie, we’ve got to put a positive spin on this, we’ve got to make an impact in her honor to help others that are going through these terrible diseases,” Larkins aid.
Information about fundraisers can be found here.
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