In March of 2022 what we thought would be a routine gallbladder surgery would actually be the beginning of her sarcoma story. Post surgery Melissa began experiencing shortness of breath and unstable blood pressure leading her to visit her doctor. They immediately rushed her to our local hospital who believed she had a massive blood clot in her heart making the decision to air lift her to a larger hospital. There she spent many days in ICU as the doctors made plans of open heart surgery, heart cath, blood thinners, and more. They were able to gather a biopsy sample of the “clot” before deciding they could not remove it due to size and location. She was discharged and sent home to have consults in the near future. Just a few weeks later in April of 2022 she received a phone call that would alter her life forever, it wasn’t a blood clot but rather a massive cancerous tumor living in her pulmonary artery. From there many appointments, opinions, second opinions, research, and conversations were had. The consensus: it is an extremely rare cancer called intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery and you have 5-18 months to live. There’s no cure, no treatment, you will die from this. She chose to turn down chemo and trials knowing the end result would be the same, she chose to live her life to the fullest for the time she had. We became her caretakers, her advocates, her team. She fought for us and we fought for her. 

She courageously fought for 11 months before ending her battle. At every appointment being told how wonderful she is doing, how hard she is fighting, how surprised she left everyone at each visit. Her fight was for her family. Now we will fight for her. We will fight for more awareness, more funding, more research, more options, a cure, more time. Losing my mom in this way and my grief has given me purpose to fight for more than she had or was given. We run for you mom! 

Thanks to the Race to Cure Sarcoma events, SFA has invested over $20 million in sarcoma research, funding over 200 grants in 12 countries leading to close to 200 total publications, adding to the sarcoma research discourse. This has led to $26 million+ in additional funding, 10+ clinical trials with 5 additional pending, and 2 patents. Your investment in the RTCS events, is an investment in saving lives.