Hello! My name is Sugath Suravarapu, and I'm a third-year at The Ohio State University studying Biomedical Science with minors in Public Health and Hip Hop Studies. I first joined BuckeyeThon my freshman year, drawn in by the mission of supporting kids with cancer and blood disorders at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and I now serve as Vice President of Membership.

This fight has been incredibly personal to me the past 4 years watching my mother navigate a stage 4 colorectal cancer diagnosis. Her strength through every appointment, every hard conversation, and every small victory has shown me exactly what it means to fight—and exactly why research and compassionate care matter so much. This past April, she rang the bell at our very own James Cancer Center, and on September 3rd, she was declared cancer free. I carry that fight, and that victory, with me into everything I do here.

If there's one thing my mother’s journey taught me, it's that no one fights cancer alone. My mom's victory wasn't just hers: it belonged to the doctors who treated her, the researchers who spent years chasing the science that made her treatment possible, and the friends and family who showed up for her again and again. That's community. And that's exactly what BuckeyeThon is: a community of people who've decided that these kids and families don't have to fight alone either. Every dollar we raise and every conversation we start funds the research, therapy, and care that becomes someone else's version of my mom's victory.

I know firsthand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of that kind of community, and I know how much it can change a family's story. So this Homecoming, I'm asking you to be part of ours: donate, register for the Dance Marathon, come meet our Champion Families, or simply share why this cause matters with someone who hasn't heard it yet. The community that helped save my mom is the same community we're building here, and every kid fighting this fight deserves to have it behind them, too.