Radiating hope after cancer battle reveals silver lining

I think just letting people know that they’re not crazy and they’re not alone, is just the most important thing.”

Abby Melendez thyroid cancer survivor

They are known as the dynamic duo. Abby and Miguel Melendez have used their shared experience of surviving cancer to help others struggling with the deadly illness.  And it’s because of those efforts, the two are the Baldwin Herald’s Persons of the Year.

More than two decades have passed since Abby, 64, beat thyroid cancer survivor. Miguel, 66, has been free from prostate cancer for 14 years. Since then, they both have inspired each other to help others who are in the same shoes they once were in.

Abby started her own thyroid cancer support group, Thyroid Cancer for Long Island — Thyca L.I. for short — back in 2003. Miguel became co-leader of the group shortly after it started. Through Thyca L.I.,, they have been a beacon of hope to those struggling with thyroid cancer.

“One of the members of the support group indicated to me that she received damage to her recurrent laryngeal nerve,” Abby said. “And she said she needed someone to talk to her off the ledge. So, I spoke with her for a while the other day.”

The point of the support group is for Abby to listen and offer advice to other people with the disease. She wants to be there for people who are struggling.

“I think a lot of people are made out to feel well, your cancer was cut out of you, you take a pill, you have treatment, you’re done,” Abby said. “And it’s not like that.”

The procedure of removing your thyroid is quite traumatic to the body. Because of that, the mental and physical recovery can take a while. This is where Abby and Miguel come in to provide support.

“I think just letting people know that they’re not crazy and they’re not alone is just the most important thing,” Abby said.

Sharing her story and letting others know that they’re not alone is one of the two “silver linings” Abby experienced from being a cancer survivor. The other is that being a survivor made her passionate about volunteering and giving back.

After retiring from working in New York City public schools more than a dozen years ago, Miguel wanted to spend his retirement doing volunteer work. He looked at the American Cancer Society website and found, what he called, to be his “own baby” that he is proud of being involved with. This is the Road to Recovery program, which he has coordinated for the past decade.

The program is very similar to ride-hail offerings like Uber or Lyft where Miguel sees a name pop up on his phone, what time they want to be picked up and returned. Unlike Uber or Lyft, he is solely driving these people to cancer treatment appointments or for other medical reasons in Nassau and Suffolk counties as well as Queens.

“Let’s say somebody is diagnosed with cancer and they have to go through treatments every day for a month,” Miguel says. “Some people have work, they have school, and they don’t have the wherewithal of traveling mass transit on Long Island. So, when I pick somebody up, they’re very appreciative.”

Miguel also finds himself involved in ACSí Se Puede, a cancer awareness group targeting the Latino community. He has spoken with the Hispanic Brotherhood in Rockville Centre about how younger people have become the ones to take care of their parents — and more care is needed.

For the past year, both Abby and Miguel embarked on a new mission — to bring back Relay For Life, a cancer charity walk, to Baldwin.

Held at Baldwin High School between 2009 and 2013. Then, under Abby’s leadership, the event was moved to Baldwin Park between 2014 and 2016, raising nearly $28,000 in the last year for the cancer society. Abby tried to bring it back in 2020, but then Covid-19 got in the way.

However, a virtual relay was held in 2021 with more than $12,000 raised.

The Relay for Life’s First Lap, which is an event to show commitment to fighting cancer, will be held Jan. 6 at noon at Baldwin Middle School. The first Saturday of the year has been known as Relay First Lap since it was started by Joe Gillette in 2018 as a way to renew his commitment to Relay for Life, and to encourage others to join him.

Abby took part in her first Relay lap in 2009 — something she described as “very emotional.” The first lap is for the survivors and the second lap is for the caregivers. Then, at the end of the evening, there is a “luminarial lap” where the track is lit with candles.

Abby and Miguel have spearheaded the relay’s planning meetings at the Baldwin Public Library. Jennifer Scarduzio, the top fundraiser at past Baldwin relay events — and a breast cancer survivor herself — saw firsthand how Abby and Miguel have been a driving force for this upcoming event. Scarduzio was tasked to reach out to local businesses for their support in this relay, while Abby and Miguel reached out to the American Cancer Society.

“So, one person is going to try to get all the entertainment for the event,” Scarduzio said. “And I am trying to get sponsorships.”

Abby and Miguel’s ability to delegate responsibility shows a “leadership role,” Scarduzio said. With the several relays that Abby and Miguel have participated in the past, Scarduzio has faith in their guidance.

“She definitely knows what she’s talking about,” Scarduzio said about Abby. “And she’s just an amazing human being.”

Angela Lucas, director of Hangout One Happy Place in Baldwin, has also seen firsthand what Abby and Miguel do, especially with their support of the organization’s Autism Awareness walk back in April.

Abby “is a very nice person, and so is her husband,” Lucas said. “They’re very, very kind people.”

Abby’s determination to bring back Relay for Life in 2024 is rooted in the relationship she has with Miguel. She describes herself as the  “yin” to Miguel’s “yang,” and that they are “sort of connected at the hip.”

“We were referred to as the dynamic duo because we do so many things together,” Miguel says. “We both were given the St. George award, which is the highest award that the American Cancer Society gives out.”

And that’s not the first time the cancer society has honored them. They were awarded the group’s Heart and Soul award in 2018 for their volunteer work in Nassau County. A few months later, they were honored with the St. George National Award for Volunteerism for the Northeast region.

“We go to health fairs together,” Miguel says, “and we get asked to speak at certain engagements. And we’ll do it together.”

The couple is teaming up once again to start a new caregiver group that will begin in January. The idea sparked at the Thyroid Cancer Survivors Association Conference where Miguel talked to caregivers. They kept asking him, “When are we going to have a group?”

“I would get asked, ‘Can we have a group?’” Miguel said. “They said that they wish they could meet with other caregivers more often because you could see that they were really bonding and relating to each other, and supporting each other.”

Sometimes all of this volunteer work gets overwhelming, but ultimately Miguel gets joy out of it.

“We do a lot,” Abby said, “because we’re fortunate. And we can.”