Letter from Lauren Spiker, founder and Executive Director

Hello,
Welcome to Melissa’s Living Legacy Teen Cancer Foundation.  Because you are visiting this site, you are probably either a teen with cancer or know a teen whom you would like to help.  The good news is that we can help you navigate the tough road ahead.  We have the most current information about teen cancer, a world-renowned medical advisory board, and terrific resources for support.  The bad news, of course, is that you are in need of what we have.

Cancer is a dreaded word for all but particularly so for teens.  The road is especially rocky for teens who want nothing more than to be normal teens doing normal teenage things.  For teens diagnosed with cancer, life is interrupted.  Plans are put on hold, dreams are replaced with nightmares, and normal is never normal again.

We know how it is.  Our family was touched personally by teenage cancer when our daughter Melissa was 17 years old and a senior in high school.  We experienced first-hand the impact of a cancer diagnosis not only on our teenaged daughter but on our whole family, including Melissa’s three brothers.  We watched her friends wrestle with their feelings and fears.  We saw her medical team grapple with a disease that had no cure as a young girl whom they had come to love lay dying.

Despite the heartache of losing our daughter to cancer, we held together as a family and somehow managed to find profound blessings amidst the sadness.  We learned that life, though changed forever, does not stop with cancer.  Each day is a new day to be lived fully and with hope for many more.  Melissa never stopped living until the moment she died, so neither can we.

We hope Melissa’s Living Legacy Teen Cancer Foundation can give you the information you need to make good decisions, the support necessary to face each day with grace and gratitude, and hope enough to keep dreaming your wildest dreams.  You can make it!

Warmly,

Lauren Spiiker