GoFundMe Campaign Set Up For 16-Year-Old Peterborough Teen Fighting Brain Tumor In Toronto Hospital

UPDATE: July 3rd, 2017 -> Melissa's dad Rick tells PTBOCanada the great news that his daughter is cancer-free: "Melissa is overwhelmed with the emotion and the lost time," says Rick. "She just got back from her last round of radiation Friday and has a lot of catching up to do." Indeed, Melissa is planning to get her G2 license, take at least one summer course, and start Grade 12 in September with all her friends. Rick wants to thank the entire Peterborough community for their tremendous support of the family during this trying time.

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UPDATE: February 16th -> Sadly, Melissa's status in that the diagnosis was changed to cancer. Her treatment continues. Our prayers to her and her family.

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UPDATE: February 1st -> The surgery went over 10 hours and she's recovering now, the family tells PTBOCanada. It's a benign tumor and 90 percent is out—it's very rare for her age and a large size. She will need visual testing for quite some time and hormone therapy. "The Dolishny family is overwhelmed with the support from family and friends, but in particular the Peterborough community," Rick tells us.

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ORIGINAL POST

After suffering blury vision and nausea, 16-year-old Peterborough teen Melissa Dolishny was recently diagnosed with a tumor in her brain that affects just about every facet of her life—vision, balance, digestion, sleep and more. She’s now blind in one eye with reduced vision in the other.

After being diagnosed recently at Toronto Sick Kids, Melissa has been moved to Toronto Western Hospital where doctors will be removing the tumor. This will be followed by months of therapy and rehabilitation.

Melissa

Melissa's father Rick

Melissa's father, local entrepreneur Rick Dolishny, tells PTBOCanada that "no matter the outcome of the surgery, there will be challenges." He adds that the support from the community has been amazing, "from our friend's offer to initiate a GoFundMe fundraiser, to the nonstop texts and tweets from friends, to the support from our family, to friends from Kenner, to the Peterborough community."

Living an hour and a half away from the hospital, the Dolishny family is in urgent need of assistance as they have transportation costs, parking, food and basic expenses of living away from home, and trying to uphold the expense of their family home in Peterborough. The GoFundMe campaign has just been set up to help the family through this trying time.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family. Please give what you can and share on your social media pages.

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