RIDE FOR A CAUSE CHARITY RAFFLE

In December 2020, Melissa and her husband Errol had just finished remodeling their Midway, Utah home and decided to sell it to begin an adventure of traveling the country in their new truck and 5th wheel with their three children. Just weeks later on January 7, 2021 Melissa was diagnosed with HER2 Stage 3A Breast Cancer. Melissa was also 16 weeks pregnant with baby number four. She immediately began her battle, gave birth to a healthy baby girl on June 14, 2021 and continued fighting. She underwent 16 rounds of aggressive chemotherapy, endured a bilateral mastectomy, survived heart damage, bouts of pneumonia, blood and platelet transfusions and persevered through 28 rounds of radiation. By August of 2022 their family considered the war to be subsiding when, on Melissa’s last day of chemo treatment the results of an MRI on her brain revealed a metastatic brain tumor. This changed her prognosis to Stage 4 cancer. She had to undergo two emergency surgeries, one for a critical infection, before she was able to have the life saving brain surgery in September 2022 followed by another series of radiation treatments. Melissa and Errol are firm believers in feeding their faith, so their fears starve to death and once again began making plans for their future with their four children, Holland 7, Lincoln 5, Theodore 3, and Navy 1. A move to Melbourne, Florida was supposed to happen in June as Errol had been accepted into a PHD program there. However, on March 23, 2023 a new MRI revealed more cancer, this time in the lining of her brain and spine changing her prognosis to late-stage terminal cancer. Although their future is unpredictable and challenging, Melissa is continuing to exercise every effort for healing and praying for more time with her children and loved ones. She fights with incredible grace and beauty and tremendous faith. She is incredibly optimistic and an astonishingly devoted wife and mother.