Cancer impacts all of us in one way or another and is a story we’re all familiar with. For Robinson’s school nurse, Christine Chapman, this story is all too real.

Chapman is currently battling Leukemia and has a cousin who has also been diagnosed with cancer. She has seen the way cancer can affect a life first-hand. But Chapman continues to fight.

In 2017 she and a small group of students worked together to found the club RHS Against Cancer. Although only a few students attended the first meeting, the organizers persisted and the club is now one of the most popular at Robinson.

“When it first started it was three of us going around trying to just get anybody to sign on…it was essentially 10 students the entire year who just did little events and this year it was insane the amount of responses we got… this just huge list of kids,” Club president Katy Hurd (’19) said.

On Monday September 17, the first club day of the 2018-2019 school year, the RHS Against Cancer Club hosted a guest speaker, Austin Simon, who discussed the Light the Night event which will be held in November.

Light the Night is an event hosted by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to raise money for cancer research. RHS Against Cancer will be attending the event to volunteer and help raise awareness.

“It is a celebration of life. Its a celebration of those that we’ve lost, those that are still here with us and a celebration of their families and friends that helped them get through their journey no matter how it ends,” Simon said at the RHS Against Cancer club meeting.

Members of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society donate money to cancer research and donate their time by volunteering and visiting cancer patients in hospitals. RHS Against Cancer members often work with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as well.

“That’s really our big goal for this semester is, Light the Night…we really want to get a big showing for that so I think [Simon] really helped reinforce how serious we are about this,” Hurd said.

Along with Hurd, Chapman was also pleasantly surprised by the turnout for the club meeting and was touched by the students who shared their personal stories of how cancer has impacted their life.

“Some kids walked in and said ‘my grandmother has cancer’…cancer touches us all,” Chapman said.

The RHS against cancer club plans to do more events and fundraising throughout the year and continue to work with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to do everything they can to support cancer research.