Melinda Marchiano’s battle with cancer—

told in her own words...

O
n December 18th, 2007, at age thirteen, I was
diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma after months
of searching for what was making me so ill. A giant
mass sat in my chest cavity, slowly suffocating me and
cutting off all circulation. Two days after Christmas, I
began my first of four rounds of chemotherapy, followed
by three weeks of daily radiation.

During this time, few situations were too serious to make

light of or laugh at and some of my greatest laughs were at
a time when, truly, I shouldn’t have been laughing. In
addition to laughter, dance proved to be therapeutic.
Having danced since age 3, I was passionate about
continuing my classes when I was well enough. Two days
after I finished treatment on May 8th 2008, I danced in my
Spring Recital.
writing with an end goal in my mind, I just wrote-wrote
about what happened to me and how I felt at the time. I
was able to evoke and dissect what I had experienced, put
it in context, and place it where it fit in my life. It was not
until I had filled about four spiral notebooks that I realized
that I had something going.

Although I was thrilled to be “done” with everything, I soon
realized that recovery was just as difficult as treatment
itself. Struggling with post-treatment effects, I sunk into
depression and the funny, loving person I had been
gradually disintegrated. Bad associations with food and
horrible digestive problems morphed into a life-
threatening eating disorder that destroyed me physically,
spiritually, and emotionally.
It was at this time that I began writing. I never began
My health steadily improved, and by August 2009, I was
on the road to recovery and I had written a 289-page book
describing my experience before, during, and after cancer.
Discovering that my story could inspire, heal, touch, and
help many people, it became extremely meaningful and
rewarding for me to share my story. On October 31st, 2009,
my new book, Grace, was self-published. Before long,
Grace was accepted by Greenleaf Book Group, one of the
only large publishing companies that let the author retain
full rights to his or her story.