Race City: Lafayette, Louisiana
Melissa's Story:
Melissa Doise lives with metastatic breast cancer. She was diagnosed at the age of 32, when her two young boys were 2 and 3 years old. From the beginning, Melissa attacked her disease aggressively with a mastectomy, chemotherapy and a T-cell transplant. She was "cancer free" for almost five years from her first diagnosis. Shortly before her 5th anniversary, she had a recurrence and was informed that the cancer had spread to her bones and liver. In the summer of 2006, Melissa had a liver oblation and underwent surgery for the partial removal of her liver. She had what turned out to be a "brief" respite from chemotherapy, as the cancer reared its head again in her spine. Melissa recently found out that she has yet another lesion on her liver and is back on chemotherapy. Thankfully, the cancer seems to be responding and her tumor markers have been going down.
Melissa has lived heroically as a young single mother, a sister, a friend, a co-worker, and a fellow woman. She has maintained a busy legal practice without missing a beat throughout all of her treatment and is grateful for every day of life that she is given. Melissa views life as a gift, and her life has been a gift to so many.
