Survivors, supporters walking tonight in Austintown's Relay for Life

AUSTINTOWN

Margie Melfe was diagnosed with melanoma in 1998. Her husband, Gregg, was diagnosed with cancer of the head and neck 13 years later.

Friday night, they led the survivor’s lap of Austintown’s Relay for Life around the track at Fitch High School.

Gregg, 51, learned he had cancer on April 1, 2011 — April Fool’s Day — but it was no laughing matter, he said.

“No one said ‘April Fool’s’ after I was done with that one,” he said.

He immediately started receiving treatments at Cleveland Clinic that year and has been cancer-free for two years.

“It will absolutely rock your world,” Gregg said in reference to the day he found out.

Their son was preparing to graduate from high school, and one moment Gregg said he’ll never forget is a conversation he had with his son.

“He came up to me, as he’s preparing to go to college, and said, ‘Dad I’m not going to college, am I?’ We had to overcome a lot of things.”

For more on their story, and the relay, read Saturday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.