This year is unprecedented. Our country is amid two global crises— the novel coronavirus and racial and social unrest. Unfortunately, cancer doesn't take a break, even in a pandemic.

The Baltimore chapter of Make a Mark, a 12-hour design and development marathon benefiting local humanitarian causes, will hold their inaugural event tomorrow, Saturday, April 14, 2018 at City Garage.

Through our community grants program, Lyft is committed to empowering nonprofit organizations doing incredible work around the nation to make our communities stronger, healthier, and more equitable, all year long.

Jade Merritt is a Baltimore native with many titles. She is a blogger (Charm City Pretty), a proud Delta, a Towson University graduate and a Microbiologist. In January, 2016, Jade lost her mother Michal Merritt, affectionately known as Mikey, to cancer.

We recognize that cancer doesn’t just affect the patient, but everyone involved. Our goal is not the treatment of the disease, but the treatment of the family.

I remember it like it was yesterday. We were sitting in the hospital room watching television and sharing jokes like we had always done when the surgeon who performed my mother’s emergency surgery just 72-hours before walked in to deliver the gut-wrenching news — “Mrs. Merritt, you have cancer.” It was stage IV.

Jade Nicole Neverdon Merritt of Mikey's Miracle Foundation

The following is guest post by Jade Merritt, founder and Executive Director of Mikey’s Miracle Foundation, Inc.