Lived for helping others

Lived for helping others

Michelle

My 37 year old daughter, Michelle Carol Clinger-Parker, lived for helping others. She was a precious daughter, wife, mother of two small children (6 year old Alexa and 2 year old Rome), middle school teacher, and middle school principal at J.O. Kelley Middle School, Springdale, AR. She was brilliant, beautiful, and driven to help people who were in difficult circumstances. Her school served low-income families, primarily Hispanic first generations in the United States. She worked tirelessly to help students and their families achieve better lives.

In November of 2011, she was diagnosed with a glioma brain cancer. She underwent traditional treatments of surgery, radiation-37 treatments, and oral chemotherapy–Temadar (generic: temozolomide). Terrible nausea resulted as she took the chemotherapy. She finished the radiation and oral chemotherapy by the end of 2012. She improved and returned to work as assistant principal fall 2014. She was not able to effectively function in her job and had to stop after 3 months, end of Oct 2014. Headaches continued, problems with pain medication, cognitive and social deficits caused her not to function well in her life. In May 2014, headaches reached an unbearable level. A CT scan reveal the GBM had returned with a vengeance. Avastin was tried, but did not work.

Four and 1/2 weeks later, on July 1, 2014, Michelle died a progressive, horrible, painful death from this GBM demonic cancer that had gradually consumed her entire brain, leaving her with no trace of the radiant person she had been. This tragic end of a young life spotlights the dire need for a cure to be found for GBM.

Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.