North Van Teen Taps
Terminal Trauma

An article that appeared in our local newspaper,
the North Shore News. Written by Deana Lancaster

More than 9000 visits have been made to Melinda Hathaway's home page on the Internet's World Wide Web.

Hathaway, 14, set up the computer site on Valentine's Day, exactly two years after she found out she was suffering from Askin's Tumor, a rare soft tissue cancer in her spinal cord.

The North Vancouver teenager had gone to Lion's gate Hospital to have a tiny bump removed from her back. When the doctors discovered what her mother Joanne calls a "gi-normous" tumor, she was sent to B.C. Children's Hospital. The tumor was inoperable because it was in her spine. Doctors found that it had spread. There were 30 small tumors in her lungs.

Melinda has had more chemotherapy than her body can take, and it's not working anymore. In January, the doctors found a new tumor. She had her last treatment in March. "They can't do anything else", Joanne said. "The chemotherapy makes her so sick and it makes her so drained."

But, the story isn't about Melinda's disease, said her mother. It's about what she's doing for other children who are also suffering from cancer. Melinda is giving them somewhere to turn for understanding, information and a little bit of hope.

Tuesday was one of Melinda's bad days. She's tired, so her mother is doing most of the talking. But Melinda is keeping careful track of the conversation, at times nodding her agreement, sometimes correcting her mother's version of the story.

Her older brother David worked for Wimsey/iSTAR Internet Inc. Back in the fall, he got an idea: "He just spoke to his boss, you know, because we needed something to keep her occupied. They gave her free, unlimited (Internet) access. So that's how we got her on the Internet."

Melinda began to spend hours, and sometimes days, roaming around her favorite web sites, and e-mailing friends. According to her mother, Melinda has always loved writing and communicating with people, and the Internet was even better than "snail-mail". "Now that she isn't as mobile as she was, she can't walk very far, she gets exhausted," Joanne said. "It doesn't take a lot of energy for her to walk to her bedroom to the computer, and then she can go wherever she wants."

The Hathways soon realized how beneficial the Internet could be for other sick kids. They are still trying to get a computer and access time donated to the bone-marrow transplant rooms at Children's Hospital. "The rooms are sterile; these kids are not allowed out, and they are completely isolated," Joanne said. The Internet would be perfect for them."

In January, Melinda, her father David and David Jr. decided to build her a home page on the World Wide Web. Unlike many families who work together on a project, Melinda said they agreed on almost everything. "Its grown and taken on a life of it's own," said her father. Even though he said she's a private person, Melinda has reached out through her web site, and shared a lot about herself, her family and her suffering. The response has been tremendous.

"She has people writing to her from all over," said her mother. " A lot of oncologists from the hospital have started writing to her since they found she was on the Internet. Her friends write to her daily, and she gets a lot mail from other "Cancer Kids", as she calls them. Her mother said that often something Melinda has included on her site strikes a chord with other children who are looking for someone who understands.

Melinda was chatting with one 12 year old girl whose cancer had relapsed. No one around her seemed to understand her anger and bitterness, but she was in constant contact with Melinda. It was only after she died and her mother wrote to invite Melinda to the funeral that they discovered the girl was from San Francisco.

Many of the children Melinda met at the hospital have also died, and death is something the family is being forced to deal with. "You never really adjust," Joanne said. "Although it's devastating for all of us, you just can't change anything. Melinda doesn't have a choice, the bottom line is that she has to cope."

Melinda's father said that he will continue to add to her web site after she has gone. And even though they didn't plan it as her legacy, through Melinda's home page, she will always be there to comfort other sick kids with a few clicks of a computer mouse.

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Melinda Meets Cast Of Full House

Published in the National Newsletter
of the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada

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Kids And The Internet

From CNotes, The Newsletter Of The Canadian Cancer Society, Spring 1996 edition

Surfing anyone? We found a perfect site to start with. If you are on the net, we recommend you pay this site a visit. Melinda has created everything from a contact list for e-mail pen pals, a gallery to actually meet her friends face-to-face (sort of), games, entertainment, reams of cancer information for everyone, computer stuff and info for caregivers, plus some personal notes she would like to share. She has spent the time to source some of the best available info, but she also knows that there is a whole world yet to discover, and she would really like it if you would come on site!

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Melinda's Home Page

An article from the St. Catherines Church Newsletter (the church that we go to)

"My name is Melinda Rose Hathaway, I am 14 years old, I live in Western Canada, and I have cancer."

To thousands of people who have visited Melinda's Internet web site since it was first published on February 14th, this line has introduced them to a remarkable and courageous teenager who has chosen to share her life with other young cancer victims around the world.

To her family at St. Catherine's, she is that and so much more. Melinda and her family have been on our parish and personal prayer lists for more than two years since she was diagnosed with cancer on February 14th, 1994. Melinda has grown up at St. Catherine's, a familiar, smiling face in the youth choir.

She explains "I created this page so that I could do at least a little something to help provide other Cancer Kids and their caregivers (especially those who are newly diagnosed) with hope, with access to some of the important information that they might be looking for, and with contact to other Cancer Kids, caregivers and cancer related sites all over the world." She goes on "After all...isn't that what the World Wide Web is really all about?"

On her web page Melinda introduces her mom, dad and brothers Michael, Greg and David as well as her dog Lucky and hamster Fuzzy Gnome. She is surrounded and supported by their love and encouragement and now wants to spread that love around the world. Her mom Joanne says that Melinda exchanges messages with many young people and their friendship and mutual understanding is another invaluable support.

Melinda's story was told on a recent CTV national news broadcast and her web page has been recognized as an outstanding link to information sources.

Melinda's web site address is www.monkey-boy.com/melinda/ and her email address is melinda@wimsey.com . God Bless you, Melinda.

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