Lynette Ruffin-Goode raising money for leukemia, lymphoma

IVOR

A former Ivor resident fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is asking for help in her goal.

Lynette Ruffin-Goode, now of Henrico County, told The Tidewater News this week she is a candidate for the organization’s Woman of the Year in Virginia and she’s raising money by asking people to contribute to her campaign.

For her, this is not an attention-getting device. It’s a project close to heart as she has a direct connection to supporting the society that aids people with those blood cancers. The website, www.lls.org, explains that leukemia is a cancer of blood and marrow, and there are subtypes. Lymphomas are blood cancers that develop in the lymph nodes. Two of the most well-known are Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

“My dad (Joseph Ruffin) — he was the smartest man I ever knew — had lymphoma; he died in July 2005,” Goode said. “He had first been diagnosed in 1982, and went to regular treatment.” The disease went into remission, but returned in 2004 as Hodgkin lymphoma.

“This is very personal to me,” added the 1982 Southampton High School graduate. In 2015, nearly $1,000 was raised from the inaugural 3K walk in Ivor to benefit the Joseph Ruffin Memorial Scholarship.

Katie Bolton, senior campaign director for special events of the L&L Society in Virginia, said there’s a state-wide campaign, and seven women and three men are working for the titles of Woman and Man of the Year.

“The campaign ends on June 8 with a grand finale gala in Short Pump. There’ll be a silent auction, so fundraising goes on right up to night,” said Bolton, who added that the winners will be announced that date.

Further, she said, “Winners from each market are all in contention to be the nation winners.”

As Ruffin-Goode states on her website, www.ruffinupcancer.com, “I have been given the honor and opportunity of a lifetime to help others with something that is near and dear to myself and so many others who are or have been affected by something so devastating and antagonizing. Each year, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) launches its Man & Woman of the Year campaign and I am honored to be nominated to join this year’s efforts as a 2019 Woman of the Year candidate. I invite you to join me in supporting LLS’s mission to cure blood cancers and help current and future patients and their families as they battle these horrible diseases.”

Those people or organizations that want to donate to the organization and her campaign fund specifically can go to her website, www.ruffinupcancer.com, which is the team name she chose.