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Courage and love in face of disease

By Ernest Hooper, Metro Columnist
In print: Friday, July 18, 2008

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Melissa Meehan dreams of being a doting mother and picking up her kids from school — in a Prius, of course.

She dreams of owning a home and being a loving wife. Most of all, she dreams of marrying Jason Baldwin on July 26 in a wedding that will bond them and prepare the south Tampa couple for a lifetime battle.

Cancer has not taken away any of those dreams, because Melissa won't let it.

Her journey started in April during a routine clinic visit in Tallahassee, where Melissa lobbies the Legislature for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. She complained of a stiff neck, but the nurse quickly grew concerned with another problem: a lump on her throat.

An ultrasound revealed a growth on her thyroid, but doctors thought maybe it was just a goiter.

Doctors took a fine needle biopsy. On June 9, the day before her 27th birthday, doctors told her she might have thyroid cancer.

"When your doctor tells you that, it's like your whole body just gets hot with fear," Melissa said. "I kind of checked out a little bit. I couldn't process all the information. The doctors were talking and all I heard was, 'blah, blah, blah, cancer, blah, blah, blah, am I going to die?' "

It got worse. Largo surgeon Ricardo Requena grew concerned after examining her lymph nodes and ordered an MRI that revealed tumors throughout her upper body. They were pushing on her aorta, her lungs, her whole chest.

In just a few short months, she had gone from a goiter, to thyroid cancer to Hodgkin's lymphoma. Her job, her wedding, her marriage, the possibility of children all became a question mark.

"It's like a downward spiraling staircase," she said.

Doctors suggested she see a fertility specialist and preserve eggs before chemotherapy and possible radiation treatment. Her insurance didn't cover fertility, so she used the $9,000 she had saved for the wedding.

"It was all of the money I had in the world," Melissa explained. "I just literally put it into a nest egg, or eggs. I'm still working on the nest."

Despite the looming challenge, Melissa remains remarkably upbeat.

She's naturally idealistic and incredibly passionate about the fight against global warming. She's gone from lecturing legislators to pleading with doctors and nurses.

Melissa draws strength from Jason; her mother, Robin McCowin; and a Tampa woman she has never met. Courtney Dempsey won a dream wedding from US magazine this week after sharing the story of her own cancer battle.

"She's just radiant when you see the pictures of her, and her fiance sticks with her," Melissa said. "He's committed to her, and that shows us love can stand the trial of disease."

Her dream of a wedding in Cape Cod, where she first met Jason, has been downsized to a simple ceremony in the back yard of a friend's home. She has a cake from Wright's Gourmet and bridesmaids in turquoise and gold — the colors of a Florida ocean sunset.

She also has courage.

"You can just be upset about it and go into your room and curl up into a ball and never come out, but that's not going to do me any good, right? I have to just keep living. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it," she said.

" I'm devastated but determined."