no one fights alone

Strong, brave and beautiful inside and out

You can't capture Melissa's essence in a sentence. There are no words to explain how powerful she is, how brave, how strong. Last year, she was diagnosed with stage 1b2 cervical cancer, and she fought like a warrior: surgery, chemo, radiation, all the things she was supposed to do to eradicate the cancer from her body. She struggled, mentally and physically, but she kept a smile on her face, and always had a way of lifting up other ladies battling this dreadful disease. When treatment ended, she took some much deserved r&r in her happy place.

She came back home to have a PET scan done. She'd started experiencing debilitating pain. And then the other shoe dropped. Not only had the cancer fled her body in the face of treatment, it had metastasized. She was restaged to stage 4.

When I found this out, my heart shattered into a million pieces. Despite never having met in real life, her pain became my own. Mel, another dear friend, Amanda, and I are the three musketeers. Cancer besties. We each have walked our own path of hell through this disease, and it is so fucking unfair to watch someone we love so much have to deal with this. Her options are limited. Her oncologist gave her a 10 - 15% chance. She's checking items off her bucket list. And that makes me cry. No one so young should have to go through this. No one should have to make the choices she is faced with.

Mel's sister-in-law, Danielle, is hosting a benefit next weekend to raise money to help with medical bills. Even though the reason for the event is not a happy one, I know that there will be nothing but smiles and laughter (and ok, tears too). While we had hoped to meet under better circumstances, when everyone was healed from treatment, Amanda and I will be there to support our beloved friend and teal sister. To say I can't wait to hug these two women is the understatement of the century.

Every day I pray that the doctors are proven wrong. I know Mel is a fighter. I know she won't rest until she turns over every last rock and finds the magical treatment lying underneath. The picture above is the face of cancer - beautiful, self assured, strong.

Mel, I love you. For late night cry fests, for texts and PMs if you don't see me on Facebook, for that unique, indescribable quality that makes you who you are. No matter what, I am always by your side.