At age 15, Cedar Connell was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive type of blood and bone marrow cancer.
Suddenly, the Boston teenager’s very active life screeched to a halt.
“When I received the prognosis, everything in my life stopped: school, tennis training, travel, and socialization,” Connell, now 18, wrote on his blog. “Fighting cancer became my only job.”
But Connell was not one for sitting still. Even from the hospital, he always found ways to keep moving.
“The week after I was admitted to the hospital on March 9, 2022, I asked the nurses if I could have a stationary bike in my room so I could exercise,” Connell said.
At first, Connell could only manage to do two minutes at a time on the stationary bike. Eventually, the two minutes stretched to 30, as the hospital staff cheered him on.
“Just as the doctors were doing their jobs to cure my cancerous cells, I would do my job in mitigating muscle atrophy by keeping myself active,” he recalled.
Connell’s approach to his cancer treatment later inspired “3 for 31:” a fundraiser that challenges participants to exercise three miles a day for 31 days to raise awareness for blood cancer patients and research.
“This can be done in any form of exercise you prefer, whether that is running, walking, biking, paddle-boarding, rowing, climbing, and anything else,” Connell encouraged. “Just get moving!”
The challenge was one small part of ConneLLS for a CURE: a fundraising team for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's 2025 National Student Visionaries of the Year.
For more than 75 years, theLLS has been working to cure blood cancers and improve the quality of hospital treatments for cancer patients, including Connell himself.
ConneLLS for a CURE, which he launched with his sister Posey, was just one of over 2,000 student groups across the country that set out to raise money for cancer awareness and research.
The Connells set their fundraising goal at $35,000.
And in just seven weeks, they raised $620,438. They were named the LLS Student Visionaries of the Year.
“The incredible young philanthropists involved in Student Visionaries of the Year have a vision for a better future and are truly helping cancer patients live longer, better lives,” Coker Powell, LLS's chief revenue officer, said in a press release honoring the Connell siblings.
“We wanted to give back to the organization that made my brother's recovery possible,” Posey said.
Today, Cedar is in remission, and his treatment is scheduled to end this month.
“My chemotherapy came with so many terrible side effects, and we hope our fundraising efforts will lead to safer and more effective treatments for future patients,” Cedar said when he accepted the award alongside his sister. “I'm so humbled to pay it forward.”
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Header image via The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
