By 22, I'd lost both of my parents to cancer.

No more than one month after my mother, Joanne, lost a brief battle with Leukemia, friends gathered from near and far to celebrate her life — and the life of my father, Butch, who succumbed in 2008 to lung cancer brought on by his work at Ground Zero — while simultaneously raising money to get me back on my feet.

And so, the first ever Cancer Can't Kill Love Benefit Concert was born. Named after a sermon spoken at my mother's funeral and thrown together in the back of a Bay Ridge bar on NFL Sunday, the November 2013 fundraiser served as a platform for local bands to share the stage and supporters to make a toast, all with one common goal: to tell cancer to take a hike. There, we raised just over $1,000 — and we've been raising the stakes ever since.

Since its inception, Cancer Can't Kill Love has raised more than $135,000 for organizations like LLS, Stand Up to Cancer, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the Dear Jack Foundation and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Last year was (somehow) no different. Despite a global pandemic (and thanks in MASSIVE PART to our friends at Bridgeside Network), Cancer Can't Kill Love 8 was able to go completely virtual. That day, small groups of friends and family came together across the country and the world to honor loved ones, listen to some awesome music and make our 2020 event a success.

Thanks to your support, we MORE THAN DOUBLED OUR GOAL of $10,000 and raised over $23,000 for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — where new discoveries are revolutionizing how cancer is diagnosed and treated. Now, we get to do it all again — and in person! We're so excited to see everyone in person at the NINTH ANNUAL Cancer Can't Kill Love Benefit Concert, happening Saturday, September 18 at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) in Red Hook!

Your gift supports the best and brightest researchers in their work to outsmart cancer. These innovative thinkers are focused on fighting every form of the disease. The close collaboration between MSK's doctors and researchers is unique and one of its greatest strengths — ensuring that drugs and therapies developed in the lab can be moved quickly to the clinic.

Together, we can join the leaders in cancer research by funding a future with better outcomes for people with cancer and their families — not just at MSK, but around the world. Every dollar helps. Let's beat another goal.

For more information, or to watch last year's livestream, visit www.cancercantkilllove.com.

-- Meaghan McGoldrick, Lead Organizer, CCKL