Support Melissa Overcoming Cancer, Part Deux

Greetings Family, Friends, Colleagues, and those we have yet to meet.

Most of you are familiar to some degree regarding my beautiful wife’s fight with cancer. In July of 2022, Melissa was diagnosed with Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma Cancer. After 3 months of chemotherapy, the cancer did not respond to treatment. On Thanksgiving of 2022, Melissa had life-saving surgery by amputating her entire left leg and most of the left side of her pelvis.

After more than a year of clear follow-up scans, the cancer seemingly had disappeared, to the point where we were able to conceive and subsequently deliver our first child, a healthy girl, Kaylee Mae Kendall on 10/21/24.

During the pregnancy, Melissa kept up her scans. Her checkup scan 4 months ago still showed no cancer. Unfortunately, her follow-up scan this week, 11/5/24, revealed the cancer is back.

She has a 5 cm x 5 cm x 7.5 cm soft tissue sarcoma cancer in the same area where the original tumor was. Since there is no longer bone, it’s on the muscle that still exists.

Unfortunately, with this type of cancer, the first 2 years is the highest likelihood of recurrence. We almost made it…

We have an appointment next week to develop the plan of action moving forward with radiation and surgery.

We are truly blessed to have been able to have our miracle child during the window of being cancer-free. And we thank God daily for this blessing.

Similar to last time, I’ll be using this platform to send mass updates so you can all follow Melissa’s journey.

It pains me to ask, but if you can spare any funds to help us through medical bills finishing out this year and into next, it would be greatly appreciated.

Clark Pacific will match donations made by Clark Pacific employees through the month of November.

 

We also have a commitment from a donor to match donations made by those outside of Clark Pacific up to $10,000.

Through our experiences last time, the more people that know, the more positivity and encouragement we can garner for Melissa, the better off she will be. When we first met, she told me how much she despises being the center of attention. Jokingly yesterday, she said she jinxed that. Love a woman who can still find humor in a time of sadness and frustration.

We love you all, we know we are not alone in this, and we ask that you please share her story.

-Jim Kendall