A former president of the NLTA is using his family’s previous struggle to fuel his efforts in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Visionaries of the Year campaign.

The campaign spans ten weeks, and is a friendly competition to see which team can raise the most money for the society.

Dean Ingram says his involvement in the initiative is “very much a personal thing.”

In December 2001, Ingram says he received the life-changing news that he had being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, and at the same time his mom was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“So me and mom were actually taking chemo on alternate weeks.” Ingram says it was a difficult winter, and that his family was able to get through it because of the supports available to them. He states “I will never live long enough, it is impossible for me to live long enough to repay what was done with me during that time.”