Join Brave Women Project Pittsburgh and Vitalant to Help Save Neighbors in Need
Brave Women Project of Pittsburgh’s second annual Pillar Awards will be held on Friday, November 15, 2024. On this occasion, Brave Women Project in cooperation with Vitalant - Pittsburgh is launching a combination blood drive and fundraising campaign to help raise awareness about the need for blood donors, collect charitable funds to support this lifesaving work, and recruit blood donors to meet the vital needs of patients throughout our region.
Your charitable donation of any amount helps Vitalant save lives of patients, like Melanie (whose story follows), who are in need of donated blood and transfusion services to overcome the hardest life challenges imaginable. One by one, let’s all join together to make a difference in the lives of friends, family, neighbors, and other community members in need of donated blood and transfusion services.
Melanie's Story
In May 2018, Melanie, then 28 and a Donor Care Supervisor for Vitalant - Pittsburgh, received a diagnosis that would forever alter her life: stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
While working on a mobile blood unit, a blood donor observed swelling on the left side of Melanie’s neck and urged her to seek medical attention. Though she initially dismissed his concern, Melanie ultimately took the blood donor’s advice. She scheduled an ultrasound, leading to a series of tests. Surgery confirmed the diagnosis: Melanie had cancer.
“I had just started a life with my high-school sweetheart, now my husband of eight months,” Melanie recalls, “When I heard the diagnosis, my world came crashing down. I couldn’t believe I had cancer at 28.”
The cancer had spread to her neck and chest, and what followed was a grueling six-month chemotherapy journey. Melanie admits it was one of the most challenging periods of her life, “There were days I wanted to give up, but I kept reminding myself to ‘fight like a girl.’”
With unwavering support from her husband, family, doctors, healthcare providers, and selfless blood donors, Melanie survived. On November 2, 2018, she rang the bell, marking the end of her chemotherapy treatments—a triumphant moment shared with her loved ones.
“It was the longest six months of my life, but I became stronger,” Melanie shares.
Today, Melanie is a cancer survivor in remission for nearly six years. Against all odds, she miraculously became a mother to her now 3-year-old daughter after being told she might not be able to conceive following chemotherapy.
Melanie remains close to the donor who noticed her swollen neck. “He was a true angel,” she says, reflecting on how his simple observation may have saved her life.