For those of you who don’t know her story,  in October of 2008 Melissa started feeling pain in her tailbone. Through Thanksgiving and Christmas she was feeling pain in other various places in her back, and by January the pain had become so severe that she had to be admitted to the hospital. The doctors initially thought she had Valley Fever, so they performed a series of tests and found out that the pain was actually being caused by cancer. It had metastasized (spread) into her bones including: the vertebrae, pelvis, scalpula, ribs, and long bones.

Melissa was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). NSCLC’s make up about 75% of all lung cancers. The type of NSCLC she has is Adenocarcinoma, which is known to be most commenly found in women and people younger than 45 years of age. Adenocarcinoma is the number one cause of death from cancer and there currently is no FDA approved cure.