Many years ago, my aunt and uncle had this lovely young couple living in the apartment in their house. The woman, a beautiful red-head named Melissa, and her husband were newly married and we would occasionally see them coming and going...I'd think, "boy, they look so happy, youthful, and ready to take on the future." Well, little did they know that their future was going to be a road with a lot of bumps. The first roadblock occurred when I heard that the Melissa's younger sister, Erin, in her early twenties, was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. Just when things were looking a little bit up, Melissa, seven months pregnant with her first child, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphona. Ugh, right? Well, these two sisters didn't just sit around and mope; Erin wrote an inspirational book, My So-Called Normal Life, as well as wrote an amazing column for Glamour magazine documenting her cancer treatments. And now, the sisters are taking on a much bigger project and need your help!
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| Erin on the left and Melissa on the right in the first photo. Banner from Erin's website. In Erin's own words: "10 years ago I was diagnosed with leukemia. Without effective treatment I would have had as little as five years to live. Today, thanks to the amazing, miracle-drug Gleevec—a pill I take every day—I am healthy and have a life that makes me feel like one of the luckiest people around. My sister, Melissa, is also a survivor. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma a year after my diagnosis (she was 27 and seven months pregnant at the time) and went through grueling treatments and ultimately a stem cell transplant. Today she, too, is cancer free. And we have five healthy children between us. We have been through a lot but we have so much to be grateful for. We are not only surviving, we are thriving. That’s why we’ve chosen to celebrate our cancerversaries (10 for me, seven post-transplant for my sister), by raising $100,000 for LLS, giving back to the organization that has given us so much." |
