After surviving breast cancer two times, Melissa Turk wants to make it clear that cancer did not define who she was, or who she is now — it was simply a hardship she had to endure. And now that she’s been through it, she is happy to share that message with other survivors who may be going through something similar.
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Read More “I found that I really appreciated talking to other people about how they dealt with the situation,” Melissa said in an interview with SurvivorNet, when discussing the time after her own diagnosis. “After my second time having cancer, I had many friends — personal friends of mine — who came to me and said, ‘Oh, my friend in California, my friend in, you know, different parts of the country, has something similar, would you mind talking to them?’ So, I was talking to friends of friends on an unofficial basis.” Melissa went on to explain that she really enjoys talking to other survivors — because it can give hope to other people. And sometimes, it’s nice to speak to someone who understands what you’re going through. “When you speak to somebody, when a patient calls on the phone and wants to speak to somebody who has gone through a treatment, to know that the person on the other end of the phone has gone through it, is still here, it hasn’t changed their life … it’s a more optimistic viewpoint.”
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