Nipomo teen cancer survivor appears in People magazine for selfless act

Rating:

5.0 (2 votes)

A local teen cancer survivor is featured in this week's edition of People magazine.

Nipomo's Melinda Marchiano appears as the new face of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

She fought Hodgkin lymphoma when she was 13-years-old.

Now 18-years-old and cancer-free, her wish was to tour hospitals "to give hope to childhood cancer patients."

The foundation, which grants the wishes of sick children, made her wish come true last summer by sending Melinda and her mother on a tour of West Coast children's hospitals.

For her selfless act, she is now in a full page ad in People.

Melinda is attending Pepperdine University and studying to become a pediatric oncologist.

She has also authored an award winning book about her experience, "Grace: A Child's Intimate Journey Through Cancer and Recovery" and hosted a documentary called "The Truth 365" that aims to bring awareness about the need to fund pediatric cancer research.