Advisors Excel Event Raises $630,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

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Mar 02, 2017, 14:23 ET

TOPEKA, Kan., March 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- $630,000 was raised to support research by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), the world's largest voluntary non-profit dedicated to fighting blood cancers, during a fundraiser hosted recently by Advisors Excel, a national financial services firm based in Topeka, Kansas. The funds raised will support a research grant focused on efforts to find cures for blood cancers, specifically in the promising area of immunotherapy.

Advisors and founders present check to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society staff.

Advisors Excel raised the funds in conjunction with more than 450 of the nation's top financial professionals who were attending a two-day training event in San Diego. The company hosts the event each year and always includes an opportunity to raise money for a worthy cause. To date, Advisors Excel and its affiliated independent financial professionals have raised more than $2 million to help incredible charities and amazing organizations around the country.

"It's absolutely incredible the level of generosity and support our financial professionals give year after year," said Advisors Excel Co-Founder Cody Foster. "Each year, I think to myself, it can't get any better and every year they prove me wrong. I speak for everyone at Advisors Excel when I say we work with the most amazing, the most compassionate group of professionals in the financial industry."

The money raised in San Diego will help fund one year of an LLS Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) grant focused on helping patients' own immune systems fight cancer. In addition, the financial professionals attending the event were given the opportunity to carry the fundraising back to their home communities by organizing and participating in local Light the Night walks to fund LLS patient service programs and blood cancer research programs. Now in their 19^th year, Light the Night walks are a signature fundraiser for LLS, having raised more than $67 million.

"Advisors Excel is an invaluable supporter of LLS. Not only are its members across the country rallying their communities for our inspiring Light The Night campaign, but these business-minded professionals are making an investment in cutting-edge cancer research led by LLS. LLS has invested more than $1 billion in research to advance breakthrough treatments and cures, and we're confident that Advisors Excel's investment in LLS will pay off for patients," said Louis J. DeGennaro, Ph.D., LLS's president and CEO.

The $630,000 donated by Advisors Excel and its agents and advisors will help expand the SCOR grant that is focused on genetically engineering patients' T cells (one type of immune cell) to seek out, target and kill cancer cells. The research, led by Dr. Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has already used this T cell immunotherapy to successfully treat two types of leukemia – chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), which is the most common childhood cancer. The next phase of the research will focus on expanding the treatment to other forms of cancer.

About Advisors Excel:

Advisors Excel was founded in 2005 by David Callanan, Cody Foster and Derek Thompson to bring unparalleled service to independent financial professionals while supporting every aspect of their business. Advisors Excel provides access to proprietary products, unequaled training, powerful marketing and lead generation support, as well as a culture in which many of the nation's top independent financial professionals continually refine their skills to better serve their valued clients. Through this holistic approach, Advisors Excel seeks to raise the expectations of these professionals, both for their own businesses and for the solutions they bring to the families and individuals with whom they work.