It all started in October. Melissa was not feeling well. She was in severe pain. Shortly after Christmas, the pain got worse. She was exhausted, had no appetite, and experienced hot flashes and rapid weight loss.

Long story short, fast forward to Friday, January 13th, Lymphoma … after several weeks in and out of Fox Chase Cancer Center, Melissa received the official diagnosis: Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Within this very short period of time, cancer spread from her neck to her waist.

Friday, February 17th, Melissa will receive her first chemo treatment. She will receive treatments every other week for the next six months.

If you are reading this, you know Melissa. She is a daughter, a mother, a wife and a friend to all of us in some form or fashion. Most importantly, she is strong, and a fighter. SHE WILL BEAT THIS!

Melissa has already started to incur massive medical expenses. Unfortunately, medical insurance only covers a small portion. Many of her pain medications are not covered at all.

She will need to travel back and forth to Fox Chase in Philadelphia and various oncologists in New York. As we all know, the cost of gas is excessive. Doctors' offices and hospitals are always cold, so to help keep Melissa comfortable, she can purchase special clothing to access her port during chemo treatments. She will need to purchase head scarves and wigs. Her two-story home will need to be renovated for her to live on the lower level. She will need to hire help to take care of basic household chores. This is just a small list of expenses that she is going to incur.

She is going to need help from every single person. If you cannot help financially, your words of encouragement and positivity to help keep her fighting would be greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Amanda Smoyer, Morgan Treffinger or Kimber Cox.

We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

`