Meet the Models, SoCal: Melissa Korc

Melissa Korc helped rally around her sister-in-law, Sarah Lopez, as she faced her breast cancer battle. It would come as a total shock that, right around the time Sarah was hitting our runway, Melissa herself was facing diagnosis. Even stranger were the similarities in diagnosis- triple negative in the right breast.

Immediately, Melissa began treatment, but just as quickly, she faced horrific allergic reactions to medications, including anaphylactic shock and even found herself in the ICU for some time. Due to the reactions, it meant treatment had to be spread out amongst multiple days and appointments for months. In all, since August 2023, Melissa has been in and out of hospitals consistently, multiple times each week. In addition, side effects from drugs have lead to the need to see specialists: “you just end up with a lot of appointments.”

What has also proven hard has been the weight gain, a side effect of many of her medications. Coupled with the inability to be as active, Melissa continues to try to find her new normal: “a lot of people think you are sick from chemo and therefore you will lose tons of weight, but in reality, most people gain weight. Movies and TV don’t always portray that correctly.”

Despite all of the setbacks, Melissa remains overwhelmingly positive saying, “at no point can I worry about why this happened. I just have to go and fight because there is nothing else I can do. I also have an incredible support system, from friends to family and even coworkers.” For Melissa, continuing to work has kept her in a better mindset where staying busy has helped maintain a sense of normalcy. For those newly diagnosed, she stresses, “every journey is different and you have to fight for yourself and what you know is best”