I recently learned I have a rare but treatable form of cancer: epithelioid sarcoma.

I decided to share it publicly because I have learned, in the course of building Samasource and LXMI, that the consistent support of friends and community is a powerful tool in the face of many seemingly impossible obstacles.

I plan to continue my core CEO & Chairman duties at Samasource, and as founder of LXMI, with accommodation for treatment and healing. Billions of people around the world don’t have access to decent work or medical care, as I do. If anything, this diagnosis affirms my commitment to our work, and my resolve to beat cancer so I can continue doing what I love for decades to come.

This was a challenging diagnosis for me to handle emotionally. My partner and I were in the midst of planning a wedding. I have been forced to take a break from kitesurfing, freediving, and the immersive experiences in nature that bring me so much joy. Being held back by surgery and recovering at home feels like a prison sentence.

But then I remembered that every healthy moment is a gift, and that I’ve had more than my share of these to date. No one is immune to illness.

Susan Sontag said it best:

“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”

So here’s to gaining another passport, and another life experience.

ABOUT Leila

Bio

• New York

Diagnosis

• Sarcoma

Primary Treatment

• Surgery

Primary Cancer Center

• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

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