Our Inspiration
Jessica is the inspiration for Race Against the Sun. She is one of thousands who struggled with Melanoma. Some days were better than others, but her positive attitude is still helping “put Melanoma on the run.”
September 18, 2007
We would like to thank you for all of your support and prayers that have helped Jessica over the last three years in her fight against melanoma.
Our latest news is difficult to share….
Jessica found peace at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia last night, and as Ed says, she shared three smiles in her last minute of life, one for Ed, one for Justine, and one for Eddie. She was in Ed’s arms and was surrounded by her parents and sister. Justine and Eddie were able to spend time with Jessica yesterday, and then were surrounded by other family and friends at the hospital.
Funeral services will be held at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, September 22, 2007 in First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, 3231 Tilghman Street, Allentown, with the Rev. Canon Michael F. Piovane, Ed.D. and the Rev. Judith U. Snyder officiating. Family and friends may call between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. Friday in the Heintzelman Funeral Home, Inc., 4906 Route 309, Schnecksville. Private interment will take place on Monday at Resurrection Cemetery in Wescosville. Online expressions of sympathy may be recorded at www.heintzelmanfh.com.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St Luke’s Cancer Center (c/o Jessica’s Race Against the Sun) and/or St. Anne’s Episcopal Church both in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box # 196, Schnecksville, PA 18078-0196. Contributions to St. Luke’s Cancer Center also can be made at
www.RaceAgainstTheSun.org.
Tonight Jessica was remembered on WFMZ’s evening news, and tomorrow her obituary will appear in the Morning Call newspaper. A feature article about Jessica and the Race Against the Sun is planned for next week in the same newspaper.
Ed and the rest of Jessica’s family appreciate all of your support throughout Jessica’s fight. He plans tosend a note to all of you when he can.
Best,
Teri Coleman, Ed's sister
Jessica F. Coleman
Jessica F. (Cahn) Coleman, 38 years, of Macungie, found peace and passed away on Monday, September 17, 2007 at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Born in Allentown on October 5, 1968, she 
was the loving spouse of Edward D. Coleman and the caring mother for her two children, Justine, 10, and Eddie, 7. A graduate of Salisbury High School, she was in the class of 1990 at Lehigh University where she was a cheerleader and a member of AOPi sorority. After college, Jessica was employed at Coopers & Lybrand in Philadelphia and then at Concannon, Miller & Company in Allentown as a certified public accountant. She was very active in her community, in the parent-teacher organizations at Lower Macungie Elementary School and Shoemaker Elementary School, and in church as a leader for the Youth Group at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Trexlertown. Jessica loved taking trips to Walt Disney World and Ocean City, NJ with her family. For more than three years, she bravely fought melanoma cancer. During her fight, she organized the Race Against the Sun 5K Walk and Run in order to promote awareness for early detection of melanoma and to raise funds to further research through The Dr. Lee Riley Melanoma Research Fund of St. Luke’s Cancer Center. Renamed Jessica’s Race Against the Sun, all are invited to participate on Saturday, September 29, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. at the Lehigh Parkway. Just last month Jessica spoke at the grand opening ceremony of St. Luke’s Cancer Center in South Whitehall Township. She was…and will always remain…truly inspirational. Jessica, a very special and precious mother, spouse, neighbor, and dear friend, has become an incredible angel. Words cannot describe how much she is loved. Thankfully, she was given three years to experience and appreciate everyone’s love during her battle with melanoma cancer. She always had a smile for everyone and touched each person she met. Her smile and the magic of her personality will live on inside us.
Survivors: In addition to her spouse of 13 years as of July 9th and her two beautiful children, she is survived by her parents, The Honorable Edward N. Cahn and Alice C. (Wotring) Cahn of Emmaus; her sister, Melissa W. Cahn of Hawley; her father and mother-in-law, Edward D. “Buz” and Veronica M. (Falcone) Coleman of Crofton, Maryland; two sister-in-laws, Elizabeth D. (Coleman) Hostetler of Crofton, Maryland and Theresa A. Coleman of Ambler; four nephews, Abraham, August, Eric and Mark; and many other loving family members.
Services: Funeral services will be 4:30 pm. Saturday, September 22, 2007 in First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, 3231 Tilghman Street, Allentown, with the Rev. Canon Michael F. Piovane, Ed.D. and the Rev. Judith U. Snyder officiating. Family and friends may call 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Friday in the Heintzelman Funeral Home, Inc., 4906 Route 309, Schnecksville. Private interment will take place on Monday at Resurrection Cemetery in Wescosville. Online expressions of sympathy may be recorded at www.heintzelmanfh.com.
Contributions: In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St Luke’s Cancer Center (c/o Jessica’s Race Against the Sun) and/or St. Anne’s Episcopal Church both in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box # 196, Schnecksville, PA 18078-0196. Contributions to St. Luke’s Cancer Center also can be made at www.RaceAgainstTheSun.org
Please click here to view Jessica's obituary online and contribute to the Morning Call's guest book.
Please click here to read Ed's speech about Jessica from the Saturday funeral service.
Jessica's Story
Written by Jessica's husband, Ed....
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Hope this note finds you well. It's been more than a week since Ed has sent an update, and I just wanted to share with you what's happening right now.
Ed will send a more detailed update when he can.
Jessica learned earlier this week that she has a new growth on her lung and new growths in her liver as well as general progression of the disease. Dr. Haas believes that Jessica's course of treatment this summer is helping only marginally at this point, and that she is in a more critical state than she was in early July.
Dr. Haas suggested that Jess can try to increase the Nexavar, which may prevent the melanoma from progressing further. She had fluid build-up in her abdomen and in her lung/chest, which was drained yesterday. She is not in pain and has been able to sleep, but she is experiencing discomfort in her left leg and fluid build-up in both legs. She is very tired and dehydrated. Again, Ed will be able to send more detail when he is able.
Jessica is staying at Fox Chase this weekend, receiving care. Ed is staying with her. Their spirit is unwavering, and both Jessica and Ed are focused on what is best for her. As Ed has said, they know all of the facts and are prepared, so now they can focus on what needs to be done.
I know that both Ed and Jess enjoy reading notes from friends and Ed is able to receive email at the hospital, but please keep in mind that he may be unable to reply.
If you want to find out more before Ed can send out a note, at this time it would be best to contact Jessica's mom or Ed's mom.
Best,
Teri Coleman, Ed's sister
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Hello All,
Jessica received her third Taxol chemotherapy infusion at Fox Chase today. Her blood work was okay with the exception of a low red blood cell count. She received a shot of Aranesp to help stimulate the red blood cell count after the chemo.
During the last three week cycle, she again had ups and downs. Fortunately, she had more good days than bad days and the overall trend continues to be upward since the beginning of July. The last week of the cycle seems to be the toughest for her. During the past week, she lacked energy and vomited four times including this morning at the start of our drive to Fox Chase. To combat the nausea during the third week of the next cycle, she will take Zofran (an anti-nausea drug) in the morning to supplement the Compazine (another anti-nausea drug) that she takes every evening. She has experienced some lower back pain but it only occurred each time her 72 hour Fentanyl pain patch started to run out and this pain has been manageable with Motrin.
For the next three week cycle, she will continue to take 400 mg of Nexavar once per day. Jess will not be taking any of the Decadron (the steroid) unless the rash appears. After she stopped taking the Decadron during the last cycle, she did have a rash appear on the midsection of her back. We contacted Fox Chase and she immediately restarted the Decadron at 2mg and the rash disappeared. After a few days, she was able to reduce to 1mg. After a few more days, she stopped the Decadron again and the rash did not reappear.
Jessica continues to have mixed results with those nodules which can be felt under the surface of her skin - the nodule on her bicep has decreased significantly; one on her inner left thigh has grown; and most of the remaining skin nodules have remained stable in size with some slightly smaller. Importantly, we have not located any new lumps over the last three weeks. We are most concerned with the nodules on the superior vena cava, the liver, and the lung which we cannot measure without a CT scan. The next CT scan will probably occur in early October. We originally thought that it would be done in early September but it was decided that September CT scan results would not cause us to change treatments even if there had been some progression of the disease. The doctors feel that we have clearly slowed down the accelerated progression that occurred earlier this summer and that we can monitor the surface nodules to watch out for more rapid progression. The doctors are pleased with Jessica’s improved status over the last six weeks.
Jessica is faced with a decision over the next few weeks. Dr. Haas has received a well-deserved opportunity with the University of Pennsylvania and will start there in October. Even though her focus will be shifting away from melanoma, she has assured us that she will continue to treat Jessica if she chooses to follow her to Penn. It is a tough decision. We are comfortable with Fox Chase but Dr. Haas has been so good to Jessica.
Let’s move on to the highlights for the last three weeks:
• We did get to the beach last week. The weather was not kind to us but there were a least a few days on the beach, the beach house was great, and the kids had a great time. Jessica and I went out to dinner one night. We were surprised when we determined that we had not been to dinner alone for eight months.
• Jessica was asked to give a testimonial speech at the grand opening of the St. Luke’s Cancer Center in Allentown at the Integrated Health Campus on Cetronia Road. There were ab
out 125 people in attendance and the speakers included Charlie Dent, our U.S. congressman. The ribbon cutting was the lead story on Channel 69 News that night. Dr. Riley became choked up when he spoke about Jessica and said that it was the greatest moment of the year for him to be able to introduce her. Jessica was touched and did a spectacular job with her speech. A number of people said that she made the event.
• The support for the Race Against the Sun has exceeded all expectations. Jessica is so moved by the support of everyone involved and is grateful for the incredible work of our neighbors especially Rhonda. If you have not had a chance lately, please check out the website (www.RaceAgainstTheSun.org). My sister, Teri, has done an outstanding job of keeping the content organized and up-to-date. Jessica is looking forward to a very successful event.
As I said last time, we are clearly not “out of the woods” yet and have a long way to go. At the same time, we are thankful for the progress that we have made so far. Jessica continues to have a positive attitude in fighting this courageous battle. We send our best to you and your family and thank you for the power of your thoughts and prayers.
Take care,
Ed
NOTE: All material posted is copyrighted by Ed Coleman and Race Against the Sun
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