Childhood Cancer Survivor Publishes Books for Sick Kids

When Melody Lomboy-Lowe was 6 years old and battling leukemia, doctors gave her a 50 percent chance of survival. She planned her funeral, choosing her clothes and deciding which friends would get her toys.

That funeral never happened. Today, Lomboy-Lowe helps other children facing their own cancer battles through books that offer what she never had: stories that reflect their reality.

Since 2020, Lomboy-Lowe and her niece Gracelyn Bateman have run the Los Angeles-based Luna Peak Foundation, publishing books for kids and families navigating cancer and grief. They've donated over 4,000 books to hospitals, hospice centers, schools, and families across the country.

"I created the books I wish I'd had when I was a child," Lomboy-Lowe says. Her children's book Follow Me, Cancer Free draws from her own experiences surviving childhood leukemia in 1983.

Her journey started in Sierra Madre, California, when swollen lymph nodes led to a diagnosis that rocked her family. They'd just lost her grandfather to colon cancer weeks earlier.

Treatment was brutal. She endured spinal taps and bone marrow aspirations without anesthesia, something unthinkable today. Monthly chemo cocktails caused severe nausea, but her doctor gave her an important job: be in charge of her attitude.

She developed coping skills that helped her through. She visualized Pac-Man eating the bad cells and continued swimming whenever she felt strong enough. Hospital visits became something she looked forward to because the other kids there understood her struggles completely.

At 9, after finishing treatment, she began speaking at fundraising events. "Only a handful of us were surviving," she says. "So to have a survivor speak at these events, it was special for them to see where their funds were going."

Her story inspired those around her too. Her high school sweetheart Tom became an oncologist after watching her journey. After college, Lomboy-Lowe became a talent agent but never stopped dreaming of writing books for children like her.

The Ripple Effect

When her niece Bateman returned to California after losing her father, the two joined forces. They started with Beyond Remission, a photography book featuring cancer survivor portraits and inspiring quotes.

Then they created children's books that tell the whole truth. Follow Me, Cancer Free celebrates survival, but Sean's Best Week at Camp Luna Peak honors a young patient who didn't make it. "Not every kid that gets a diagnosis is going to be cancer-free," Lomboy-Lowe explains.

The books reach children who desperately need to see themselves in stories. One little girl named Zoe spotted a bald, brown-skinned character and exclaimed, "That's me!"

Four decades after planning a funeral she'd never need, Lomboy-Lowe gives children facing cancer something more powerful than statistics: stories that validate their experience and remind them they're not alone.