When Carly Lasher thinks back to the day everything changed, she remembers the details with striking clarity. She was an eighth grader, dressed head-to-toe in green for a school spirit event. It was a normal morning before school – until it wasn’t.
Her mom and younger brother, Carson, a fifth grader, had left for what she thought was a normal doctor’s appointment. Carson had recently joined his first tackle football team and kept telling his family, “It hurts when I get hit.” They teased him at first, but his insistence that “it hurts on the inside” sent him to a doctor and, later that day, the hospital.
Lasher didn’t know any of this. What she did know was that her grandmother picked her up from school – strange. Then her dad was already home – stranger. When she walked in the door, her family sat silently on the couch.
It would take three years and ultimately Carson’s passing before she fully understood the scope of his diagnosis. Carson had a rare germ cell tumor that fewer than 10 people had ever had worldwide.
Lasher holds tightly to her memories of Carson, the way a big sister does. She remembers his thick Southern accent, even though they were from Indiana, and how kind he was to his classmates. She even hopes parts of his personality live on in her, especially his sense of humor.
“I would never admit this to him, but he was really funny in a very sarcastic way,” she said. “Sometimes people pick up on my humor and say, ‘Oh, that’s really funny,’ but it’s not truly mine. I picked it up from him.”
The day Carson died, Lasher remembers when it was finally time to leave the hospital, her dad looked at her, lost.
“We had to start making our way out, and Dad was just standing there looking like, ‘What do we do now?’” Lasher said. “I’m like, ‘Well, what else can we do but do good?’”
That commitment led to the creation of the Carson E. Lasher Foundation, which supports families facing pediatric cancer and other childhood illnesses. It also led Carly to raiseRED.
raiseRED is UofL’s largest student-run philanthropic organization, supporting the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the UofL School of Medicine. As part of the Miracle Network Dance Marathon, raiseRED connects students to a national movement dedicated to fighting pediatric illness.
The group’s yearlong fundraising culminates in a 12-hour dance marathon. The 13th raiseRED dance marathon will take place Saturday, Feb. 21, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Swain Student Activities Center, celebrating a year of support for the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the UofL School of Medicine. Last year, the Cardinal community raised more than $533,000.
For her, the organization’s purpose is simple.
“We’re getting a group of over 500 college kids together to fight for something that’s bigger than themselves,” said Lasher, who’s leading UofL’s raiseRED as its programming director. “We bring everyone together for this common goal of making good in our world.”
Lasher believes Carson would be proud of her work and her college career as a criminal justice major in the College of Arts and Sciences. Set to attend law school in the fall, she imagines he would have joined her at UofL. Today, she continues to honor him through raiseRED, the foundation and the bracelet he once wore that she now keeps with her every day.
“We just try to keep doing good in his name,” Lasher said.
And she does.
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Want to participate in raiseRED? Watch via livestream or donate via their website.
