Fox Chapel senior wrestler Trevor Katz knows the toll cancer can take.
“In 2003, my cousin Amy, she was 11 years old,” Katz explains. “She was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia, which is typically found in adult males over 50. So for her to be diagnosed, at that age, with that form of cancer, the outlook wasn’t great.”
But he has also seen first-hand all of the fundraising for research and patient support works.
Amy is now in remission and expecting her first baby - all thanks to Gleevac — a drug that was experimental when Amy was diagnosed.
“And all the research for Gleevac was funded by (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society),” he says. “So we pretty much thank LLS for having my cousin Amy being around still.”
Since then, fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has been the Katz family mission. His father raised $106,000 in 2019, his sister 82,000 last year. Another cousin raised $101,000.
This year, it was Trevor's turn.
“A lot of it’s just kind of grass roots spreading,” he says. “But we had a connection at Lamar Advertising, and he donated billboards.”
Those billboards, a charity concert and help of his wrestling teammates led to a whopping $250,000 in donations.
It set an LLS record for student fundraising, and Trevor was acknowledged as the "Student Visionary of the Year" for 2023. Trevor designated that money to benefit patients with CML, the same cancer his cousin had. He also donated to the Dare To Dream Project, which works to develop cancer treatments.
“Too often the treatments they give to four and five year olds are treatments they develop for adults, and they just don’t work the same for children,” he says. “They end up hurting them.”
Trevor will attend Penn State next a year, a fit for many reasons, not excluding that they host Thon — the largest student-run philanthropy in the world focused on fundraising for pediatric cancer.
For now, he hopes he's leaving behind a legacy that inspires others to make a difference.
“Everyone has a connection to cancer,” he says. “Maybe it’s not blood cancer, but if you can see what you’re supporting or where your help is going to, it helps raise that motivation side of you.”