Indian Land cancer survivor raises over $100,000 to help others win their battles

She defeated cancer. Now Amy Eberhardt has raised more than $100,000 to help other blood cancer patients win their battle.

Eberhardt finished a tough, 10-week contest, the Charlotte Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Man & Woman of the Year Competition, as first runner up in fundraising. Her goal was $50,000, but she shattered that with a $104,900 total.

“It’s such a feeling of accomplishment and it’s such a win for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,” Eberhardt said.

The group of 16 men and women raised a grand total of $1.4 million – a new record for the Charlotte chapter. The total number was revealed during a finale gala June 3 in Charlotte. That’s when Eberhardt learned of her first runner up status and that she also was chosen for a brand new award for motivating people to volunteer and get involved in her cause—The Citizenship Award for Volunteerism.

“It’s about spurring people into action to want to do volunteer work and help with the campaign,” Eberhardt said.

During the competition, Eberhardt and her team of volunteers ran auctions, sold ribbons, held benefit nights at local restaurants and shops. Eberhardt said it was truly a grassroots effort.

“I’m not getting big fat checks in my inbox. This was $25, $50, $100 checks. That’s $10,000 a week I raised—raising it $25-$50 at a time,” she said.

As a 16-year survivor of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Eberhardt said she knows how crucial drug research and development is to cancer patients. It was an experimental trial that saved her life. Now she’s grateful she had the opportunity to give others a fighting chance.

“It truly goes to fund research to develop new blood cancer drugs and treatments and give patients like myself options to have a clinical trial to hopefully save their life,” she said.

This story was originally published June 16, 2017 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Indian Land cancer survivor raises over $100,000 to help others win their battles."