Presented by RBC Wealth Management, Wellspring’s Well Dressed for Spring is a fashion event like no other. Hosted by Canadian fashion icon Jeanne Beker on March 27, 2024, the evening features models who have been touched by cancer, either having been diagnosed themselves or as a caregiver to someone with cancer. For more info, visit: https://give.stg-wellspring-stage.kinsta.cloud/event/welldressed
Fashion model and influencer, Sarah DeMelo has been through it all.
While still on maternity leave one-year after giving birth to her second child, Elliot, Sarah found out her first-born son, Benjamin, was diagnosed with leukemia. He was two weeks away from celebrating his third birthday.
You think that would have been the final straw. But mere months later, just as they were starting to see encouraging results from Benjamin’s leukemia treatment, Sarah too was diagnosed with cancer, hers in the salivary gland – adenoid cystic carcinoma. “I went straight from wondering if one kid was going to get to grow up, to wondering if I’d get to be there to see either of my kids grow up.”
Maternity leave morphed into full-time caretaker leave, then after Sarah’s diagnosis—long-term disability leave.
Despite being dealt blow after blow, Sarah uses her voice and platform for good, encouraging everyone to understand the importance of getting their bodies checked. “Make your health a priority. If something doesn’t feel right, get it checked out as soon as you can. Trust your gut,” she says.
While they both have a long road ahead, she is reminded of the importance of family and prioritizing family time above all else. “Childhood cancer changes your life in so many ways. Childhood cancer changes your family. But you learn that the time you have with your loved ones is the most important thing in the world.”
Sarah and Benjamin are walking in this Wellspring’s 2024 Well Dressed for Spring event.
