Melissa Kurdyla, In Her Own Words

Hello there, my name is Melissa Kurdyla. For anyone that knows me, they know that I can handle mostly anything that comes my way without batting an eye. There have been a lot of ups and downs throughout my life, and somehow, I have found a way to persevere. However, the year 2024 will always be the year that my world crumbled all around me.

The day was supposed to be like any other—go for my mammogram on my lunch break and go home to continue working. That wasn’t the case that day. I was told that there was an abnormal finding, and I needed to speak with a breast surgeon immediately. I went back home, told my boss, and was trying to process what was happening without going down the infamous rabbit hole.

I kept my family and friends updated on what was going on. Work was stressful, and I was trying to keep it together. I was able to see the breast surgeon two weeks later. It was a Thursday. I was sick to my stomach. I went to the appointment alone. From that day on, my life was changed forever.

The doctor told me something I never could have imagined—that yes, I do have breast cancer. I kept staring at her, just trying to process the words coming out of her mouth, but I couldn’t. I left there and cried in the parking lot for a long time. Millions of things started flooding my mind, but all I kept thinking was: How do I tell my girls?

I came home, told them both, cried some more, and tried to start the next day off as normal as I could. It was not that easy, and trying to balance everything felt impossible. I was trying to occupy my mind with work to stop me from thinking about my diagnosis.

I had a meeting with my boss, during which she read from a script stating that I was terminated from my position due to performance issues—immediately. I was living a nightmare. Two weeks to the day after I had told her about my mammogram, I was suddenly fired for the first time in my life. I was in shock and at a loss for words.

Not only did I need to see what the course of treatment was going to be for my cancer, but I no longer had health insurance and was unemployed. The next few weeks were honestly a blur—test after test, worry after worry. I would receive updates to those tests through “MyPortal” and try to decipher the results until the doctor would finally reach out. Being stressed was an understatement.

The day finally came when I had to meet my caseworker, who oversaw my upcoming surgery and overall future treatment. I was telling her what had happened to me. The first words out of her mouth were that it was all going to be okay and that I would get through this. She said, “I am going to make a call and see if I can get you some help.”

By the time I pulled into my driveway, Miss Kathleen was calling my cell phone. The first words out of her mouth were, “Melissa Kurdyla, were you a student of mine around 1985 or so?!” I was in awe. Here it was, almost 40 years later, and a woman who owned a dance studio that I attended for years remembered me just by my name.

“That was the first time I felt like I could breathe, if only for a moment.”

Miss Kathleen listened to me on the phone as I broke down and just reassured me that everything was going to be okay. She said that if she could make this a little more bearable by helping with medical bills, that was what her foundation was going to do. That was the first time I felt like I could breathe, if only for a moment.

Throughout the next several weeks, I underwent my surgery—finally—after being rescheduled at the last moment. After a rigorous and tiresome recovery process, I began working three weeks later. My new employer embraced my situation and bent over backward to accommodate me because I was about to start radiation, which was terrible. For all of those who have gone through it, you know what I am talking about.

This cancer journey of mine changed me. It has brought me full circle as a person. In some ways, I have become less jaded from my past experiences, and I have been able to soften this hard shell of my exterior.

This journey has reminded me that there are good people in this world, willing to help others no matter what their circumstances are. I am incredibly grateful for those in my life who have helped me through such a hard point in my life.

And I am happy to report—I am officially cancer-free and learning to go with the flow of this thing we call “life.”

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