Has Melanoma Cancer touched your life?

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My good friend recently passed away of melanoma cancer. It didn't matter that he was checked regularly for signs of cancer. It didn't matter that once he was diagnosed with melanoma, he followed the doctor's advice completely and religiously. It didn't matter that the doctors removed the cancer, and said that they were "98% sure" they got it all. It didn't matter that he went to his dermatologist and other skin cancer specialists every 3 months as required, to make sure that or other cancers didn't show up. It didn't matter that once that same melanoma showed up in that same place again, the doctors dug even deeper and thought they'd removed it all "this time". What did matter was that, after what seemed like several months of no cancer symptoms or signs at all, he suffered what we thought was a stroke. He was working (he drove all over the state as part of his job) when he called on a job-site and the person he called noticed that his speech was slurred and suggested he go to the hospital. My friend thought it was just that he'd bitten the inside of his cheek and it hurt, so that made his speech seem slurred. He worked that day, and on the next day (a Saturday), his wife noticed that he seemed unable to speak clearly at all. He wouldn't go to the hospital but continued on until Monday when his boss told him to go home and have his wife take him to the hospital. That day, we found that his melanoma was Stage 4 and that he had 3 months to live. It didn't matter that he went to every appointment and every doctor and every specialist and went through chemo and other new clinical trials. Every single day, his health deteriorated. He thought he tripped over something once and actually had lost use of his leg just that quickly and fell. He wasn't able to walk without help after that. Then he lost use of his arm. Then his ability to walk at all. After that, he couldn't talk above a whisper and had to clear his throat constantly to get a couple of words out at a time. He did everything, as did his wife, but they finally decided it was time to quit going through the pain and constant pills, pokes and prods. The decision making event was when the doctors did yet another brain scan and found that the cancer was not receding but continuing to invade his brain and spinal column as well as other parts of his body by then. There was no stopping it, if all they'd already gone through hadn't done it. My friend went home that day knowing that his time was limited. He had made his peace with God and his son (our son) had come to visit him from out-of-state. It was a way of saying goodbye, without saying it. Many of his friends came to visit, which sometimes made his days better, but sometimes he admitted, it bothered him that people he never saw or heard from, but who were supposed to be his friends, were all of a sudden coming to say goodbye (not in words). He felt as if he were on display at those times. It wasn't easy for him, having always been a very strong construction foreman, to be seen weak and looking so thin from not being able to eat much. My friend passed away at home 4 months, nearly to day, after being told he had Stage 4 melanoma and 3 months to live. He was my high-school sweetheart, my first love, my first husband, my oldest son's Dad and when all is said and done, he was one of my best friends throughout my life. He would have been 58 this month. But I know he got to celebrate in heaven. Has melanoma cancer affected your life?