Don't Stop Believing

Martha Quinn with Steve Perry.  (Original Image: tampabay.com)

We all have such Facebook friends.  You know who I’m talking about.  He’s the person who you knew in high school, although you never really hung out together.  She’s the one that posts interesting facts or thoughts, but also shares a little of their personal obsession or interest.  You may have more than one such Facebook friend.  The one I’m thinking about for me is a true Steve Perry fan.  She posts many insightful political links and thoughts, but she often fits one Steve Perry photo periodically.

I was a pretty big Steve Perry fan myself.  In case you younger folk don’t know, he was the lead singer of the rock group Journey back in the day.  They have a new look-alike, sound-alike singer now, but Steve was THE singer who’s associated with Journey’s biggest hits.  I saw them in concert back in their prime, and his voice was incredible.  “Wheel in the Sky,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’”…all great songs.

A week or so ago, my friend posted a photo of Steve hugging Martha Quinn…one of the original MTV VJs from back in the network’s beginning.  Oh my…what man in their 40’s or 50’s now was NOT in love with cute little Martha?  Honestly, it was Martha in the photo that drew me to my friend’s posted photo, not Steve Perry.  But I noticed that Steve also had a huge scar on his face.  Nothing was mentioned about it, until today.

In case you missed it, check out the letter that Steve wrote to FanAsylum…a fan-based website.  Within the letter, he tells of finding a true love in his life…a true love who happened to have stage 4 breast cancer.  Despite her illness, he knew she was the one.  He goes on to summarize the next year and a half…to the point where she sadly passed away.  Within the story, he also stated the origin of his face scar.

Melanoma.

An icon from my youth has melanoma.  Not an illness due to the hard partying rock and roll lifestyle, but melanoma.  He didn’t talk much about it in his letter because his focus was on his love.  He also assured us that the two surgeries removed the melanoma from his face.

My brother’s melanoma was removed from his face as well.  He died less than a year later.

But Steve’s outlook is far brighter.  A recent article outlines how the prognosis for melanoma patients now is so incredibly better than it was only two years ago when Jeff passed away.  Per the experts quoted, basic statistics for melanoma survival that one reads on the internet can almost be ignored.  “We don’t call (melanoma) a fatal disease any longer, we call it a chronic disease.”

Back in August, 2010, another good friend and melanoma researcher told me that great things were happening.  And they still are.  You have to believe that they’ll continue to get better…with support in funding for research and awareness.  You just have to believe.

As Steve Perry would sing (and my tutu-wearing west coast friend Mark Williams reminds us daily), “Don’t Stop Believing.”