The Medina family is a group of runners.
As a tight end for his tackle football team, when her son, Drew, breaks away, his team knows they are getting a touchdown because no one can catch him. Her daughter, Madeline, made the varsity cross country team at Edmond North High School and is the sophomore senator who is co-chairing the of the planning the BALTO 5K.
The whole family runs 5K races together. That’s just what they do.
For those who know an avid runner well, they have a certain mentality. They are focused on the race and the training schedule. Life and long runs tend to be planned around one another. Injuries come and go and they work through them. As long as there are friends and family by their side and a finish line up ahead, life is good.
Melissa was on her way to one of those finish lines, the Route 66 Half Marathon, when she rolled over one night and noticed a pain in her breast. Encouraged by her husband, Pat, who is an oncology pharmacist and Director of Pharmacy at Stephenson Cancer Center, Melissa went in for the mammogram that she was a year and a half overdue for. She was immediately sent to get an ultrasound and then to get a biopsy that same day.
“When they told me I had cancer, I thought they must be mistaken. I felt fine. I thought, ‘I am really busy. I don’t have time for breast cancer.’” Melissa remembers.
A second opinion of her condition not only confirmed the cancer but escalated her condition from stage 0 to stage 3.
“It went from ‘I have to get surgery and then it will be gone.’ to ‘How long do I have to live?’.”
The medical team took action, putting in a port in Melissa’s chest for her chemotherapy on a Friday – two days before the half marathon she was scheduled to run. Admitting to being in a lot of pain, Melissa’s runner mentality kicked in.
“I had paid for the race and I trained for it, so I was going to run it!”
With the encouragement from her running buddies and despite not being able to move her arm, Melissa completed the half marathon in just over two hours.
That’s when the real battle started. The physical battle was only part of it. The real battle was emotional and mental. It is like the signs you can find during a race,
“Running is 90% mental and the other 10% is in your head.” Cancer can be something like that as well.
Melissa was understandably scared and wondering what she was supposed to do now that she had cancer. Her answer was simple. Run.
“I thought if I could keep running, then everything is going to be okay.” In fact, when Melissa told her daughter about her cancer diagnosis she told her not to worry. The only difference would be that she would be more tired and that they would get some really cool race shirts.
Melissa began training for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. She would get chemo on Thursday and schedule her long run on Saturday. It changed her focus from the treatment to the training. “Preparing to run 20 miles distracts you from thinking about receiving chemo,” Melissa laughed. She didn’t miss a week!
An inspiration to many around her, Melissa’s running group grew. Her friends even surprised her with shirts saying, “We’re in it for the full 26.2.” They encouraged her along the way while letting her know it was okay if she didn’t feel like doing it. The runner side of her said, “Of course I had to do it. There were shirts! It was in writing! I may be slow, but I won’t quit.”
“Many times people don’t know how to act around someone who has cancer. They don’t know what to say or do,” Melissa said. “Running kept me surrounded by friends and family and gave me a diversion during a really tough time.”
The day after crossing the finish line and completing the 26.2 miles, Melissa went in for her mastectomy. Sadly, her battle was not over and she also had to overcome cancer in her thyroid, which she had removed on year later – also on the day after she ran the Memorial Marathon.
On the way home from her thyroid surgery, her husband had some news. Melissa had been named Susan G. Komen’s Inspirational Woman of the Year for Western and Central Oklahoma and the award would be presented at the Pink Tie Ball just two weeks later. Her plight, story and perseverance had been an inspiration to so many and she was getting the recognition she deserved.