Shayla Morales, a cousin of Suffolk assistant project manager Grisell Vazquez, has faced a long cancer-fighting journey since age 11. Her family first noticed something was wrong when she couldn't bend over to tie her shoes, and she was diagnosed with leukemia A.L.L. in 2011.

 

In June 2018, 19-year-old Shayla received the heartbreaking news that the cancer had returned for a third time. Doctors caught the disease early, but she had to undergo treatment in Texas, followed by a bone marrow transplant. The Giving Circle contributed more than $15,000 to the cost of the family's eight month stay in Texas, relieving some of their financial and emotional burden as Shayla awaited her transplant.