Hello,

My name is Melva Johnson and I am an 11 year cancer survivor. My story begins like this...

The day that I was told that I had breast cancer scared me. I didn't know how I was going to tell my family and friends. On the way back home from seeing the doctor I was really concentrating on how I was going to tell my family, especially my children. I was only 36 years old.

Well, I got up the courage to sit my children down, talk to them about this horrible disease that had crept up on me. Of course I was nervous and scared of how they were going to react, hearing that their mother has breast cancer. So I proceed to tell them. At first, they looked at me crazy with their mouths dropped, and then they began to cry. Then, here came the questions and I didn't have all the answers myself - I was just learning the significance of this disease. I had help on letting them and my family know about it, there was this nurse that only deals with breast cancer - I'm sorry I can't remember her name - but when I sat down and talked with her she was the sweetest and most caring person that I had ever met. She made a date to come out to my home to sit down and talk with my family, they understood how breast cancer can and will take over your life. She explained it more clearly than what I could have told them.

I went through 2 months of chemo and I think 2 months of radiation. This was the hardest sickness that I have ever gone through. I was sick the whole time I was going through my chemo and radiation; I was hospitalized 4 times within the 2 months. I had to have a blood transfusion which I never had to have my whole life.

But through the grace of God I made it and now I am in my 11th year of being a survivor of this deadly disease and I'm going to continue to be a SURVIVOR!!!