WWE, 2K And LLS Partner To Combat Blood Cancers And To Provide Hope

Next to a cure, the best thing you can offer a cancer patient and their family is hope. I know this all too well as I've lost multiple family members to the disease, including blood cancers like lymphoma.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) are working diligently to provide the former, and are already providing the latter to those affected.

I recently had an opportunity to speak with the President and CEO of LLS Dr. Louis J. DeGennaro at a WWE 2K event.

LLS, 2K and WWE are partnering in the fight against blood cancers, and Dr. DeGennaro is passionate about his work to obliterate these diseases. In addition to raising awareness, DeGennaro and LLS have worked to raise funds for research.

Per DeGennaro, since 1994, $1.5 billion has been raised for cancer research. In the past two years, the FDA has approved 50 new treatments, and LLS has made 45 of those new vessels of hope happen.

A partnership with 2K and WWE aids LLS' cause from an awareness standpoint, and it will help to drive more funds for research. Per LLS' website, the WWE 2K brand will play a massive role in a new initiative.

Utilizing its extensive social media presence, 2K will issue a call-to-action via the WWE Games Twitter account, urging consumers to retweet and spread the LLS message and donation link. For each retweet, 2K will donate $2.00 to LLS, up to $500,000.00.

The alignment of the organizations and the involvement of Roman Reigns, a leukemia survivor, couldn't be more appropriate.

DeGennaro's interest in the WWE 2K event was layered. Obviously, he was there as one of the leaders of his organization discussing the partnership with WWE and 2K, but DeGennaro is also a gamer.

We had a short conversation about BioShock (one of his favorites) and we also discussed how gaming can help the afflicted.

"We were lucky to be able to bring a local family, and a 13-year-old boy to this event," DeGennaro said. "He's going through his leukemia treatment right now. When the WWE stars came in the room, he told us that Reigns was his inspiration. He told us the WWE Superstars and gaming kept me going. The relief and outlet is very important."

As someone who has sat in a doctor's office on multiple occasions while medical staff gave us our options, it's hard to quantify the impact of good news as it relates to cancer stories. Seeing children win is perhaps the most impacting.

LLS, WWE and 2K's efforts to help produce more of these stories is most commendable.