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In January 2021, after Melissa Spells, 53, went in for her annual mammogram, she got a frightening diagnosis — breast cancer. She felt like her weight played a part in her diagnosis, she tells TODAY.com.
At the time, she weighed 330 pounds. Years earlier, she had been a fit runner for her high school track team, but she had seen her weight increase as an adult.
Over the years, she gave birth to three daughters, and, like many busy moms, her weight climbed with each pregnancy. “My last daughter was born in 2007, and around then, my weight just skyrocketed,” she says.
Working nights didn’t give her much time to focus on healthy eating. “I would just grab quick breakfasts and consume them without thought,” she says.
She faced a range of health issues
Breast cancer wasn’t the only health problem possibly linked to Spells’ weight. She had sleep apnea, prediabetes, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and a lot of back pain.
“I would hesitate to go any distance because of my back pain,” she says. “I had to lean over on shopping carts or even use the motorized scooter to get around the aisles in stores because my back was in such pain.”
Spells’ cancer diagnosis scared her into losing weight and improving her health. “I realized that this was life or death. It wasn’t just me needing to lose weight and thinking I had all the time in the world,” she says.
She’s lost 110 pounds, and all those health problems are now in her past. Here’s how she did it.
Breast cancer treatment came first
Spells, who works as a care coordinator at Jamaica Hospital, relied on her faith to help her…
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