The Melanie Benedetti family fund


It is with heavy hearts and lots of hope that we share the story of our dear Melanie Benedetti; mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend and role model.

Melanie is a vibrant 44-year-old caring soul who has been on health roller-coaster since early June and now is fighting for life.  She was first hospitalized at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose on June 20th, 2019 with what was thought to be a bad bout of pneumonia.   She was prescribed numerous drugs to fight viral, bacterial and fungal infections.  None of the treatments were very effective, but Melanie is young and strong, so she was discharged to rest and recover in the comfort of her own home, allowing her to spend time with Lucca, her 6-year-old son. Unfortunately, she did not improve during that time.  On July 4th her husband John came home from an opening at his new tasting room to find Melanie with a racing pulse and struggling to breathe.  Fearing for his beautiful wife’s life, John raced her over back to Kaiser Hospital.  The Doctors were perplexed, feeling they had ruled out the reasonable possibilities, they decided to biopsy her lungs. The results were devastating. Stage 4 Lung Cancer.

Melanie lives a healthy lifestyle. She is an active person running, or swimming daily. She eats well and is diligent about doctor visits. She lived most of her life as a strict vegetarian, has never smoked, and only sips alcohol socially.

Her family and friends are devastated and doing what we can to support her, her husband John and her son Lucca. John is a self-employed startup winemaker and has no fixed income. Melanie has been the main source of income in their family and has no paid leave available. There is a possibility she might lose their medical coverage during this process.

We are hoping to raise funds to help the family financially so that the focus can be on Melanie’s healing. We are looking to raise $50,000 and hope that you can help us achieve this goal. This money will be used to help them cover their mortgage payments, health insurance, hospital bills and living expenses for the next 6 months.

Melanie is such a caring and giving person and deeply loved by many. It is heartbreaking to see her going through this and we are all stunned by how quickly this disease is progressing. She is also a strong fighter and is trying to keep her sense of humor and spirit up. Help us relieve the financial worries on her family so that she can keep up her fight and heal!

If you wish to mail a check, please address it to the care of Shirly Benedetti, 100 Treetop Dr, Santa Cruz, CA 95060