Featured Survivor Story:
A Life Rewritten: Finding Strength in the Face of Melanoma

By Mara Klecker

Just Normal People

Asked to describe his life before the first melanoma diagnosis—before losing an eye, undergoing open heart surgery and then battling the return of melanoma—Mike Tompkins used a simple description. “We were just normal people.”

After 36 years as a firefighter, Mike and his wife, Vanessa, had settled into a kind of peaceful rhythm by 2020. By then, they’d been together 17 years and raised the four children in their blended family. Mike’s retirement date in July of that year came and went, and the couple was planning a future around vacations and grandchildren.

Mike had been experiencing some vision changes that he assumed were related to aging. Since it was still early in the pandemic, getting an eye appointment was difficult.

A Shocking Diagnosis

When he finally saw an ophthalmologist, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, Mike went into the appointment alone, leaving Vanessa in the car due to COVID-19 protocols. When he came back out to her, he was crying.

“Mike is not one to really cry often, so I knew it was serious,” Vanessa said. “He got in the car and just kind of blurted out, ‘I have a melanoma tumor in my eye.’”

Vanessa started shaking and had trouble driving home, where the couple spent the weekend worrying. As a then-hospice nurse, Vanessa knew what late-stage cancer can look like. Mike was panicking, too. Vanessa called his doctor that night to get him an anti-anxiety medication to ease some of the worry until they could find out more from a specialist.

“Your mind goes to some dark places,” she said,

The following week, the specialist confirmed Mike’s diagnosis: Uveal Melanoma. Cancer is a presumptive diagnosis for firefighters.

Mike’s tumor was large and located in the ciliary body, deep inside the eye. The doctor recommended the eye be removed, and quickly.

Adjusting to Life with One Eye

“My focus then went away from the cancer, believe it or not, and toward ‘How can I live with one eye? What does that mean for my independence?’” Mike said.

Surgery came just ten days later. Postoperative recovery was grueling, made harder by pandemic protocols that sent Mike home right away. Vanessa stepped into the role of caregiver. Mike had to adjust to life with a single eye and a change in depth perception and peripheral vision. Everything from pouring a cup of coffee to stepping off a curb was different.

When One Hurdle Isn’t Enough

After nearly two years of clear scans, Mike finally planned to repair the triple hernias he’d long postponed. But during routine pre-op checks in fall 2022, his primary doctor heard something off in his heartbeat. A cardiologist soon found a leaky aortic valve and an aortic aneurysm, abruptly shifting the plan from a straightforward hernia repair to major open-heart surgery—an upending shock that came just as Mike had begun to feel their lives return to normal.

“Suddenly, all this shifted from eye vision problems and cancer problems to ‘Oh, I have an explosive aneurysm cooking in my heart,” Mike said. “Vanessa and I looked at each other like ‘Is this real?’ The psychological challenges of that were crazy. You get over one hurdle just to deal with another.”

The January 2023 surgery went well, and four months later, Mike was able to undergo his hernia surgery. But the recoveries required Vanessa to take 10 months away from work to care for Mike, who she called a “role model patient.”

The back-to-back medical challenges had reshaped the retirement they once imagined. Instead of traveling abroad, the pandemic, cancer diagnosis, and eye removal had brought their plans “to a screeching halt.”

Facing Stage IV

By June 2024, yet another medical hurdle. Mike pulled up his recent scans on his phone through his online medical chart. Vanessa knew what she was seeing.

“It was an awful, awful day I can tell you that,” Vanessa said. “I spent the entire day crying. We both did.”

Days later, Mike got on a video call with his oncologist, Dr. James Lee, who delivered the news that Mike had Stage IV cancer, and that it was incurable. But he also had reassuring words. “He said don’t go on the Internet and look at outdated information or statistics,” Mike said. “He said there were new treatments. He gave us hope.”

The Long Road of Immunotherapy

Four cycles of immunotherapy in the last six months of 2024 proved tough for Mike. He struggled with severe colitis, rapid weight loss, and extreme weakness due to anemia and malnutrition. The side effects were treated with steroids that resulted in changes in his mood. Vanessa remained understanding but was also struggling with her own deep grief alongside the responsibilities of caregiving.

Despite the toll it was taking on Mike’s body, the immunotherapy wasn’t shrinking the tumors. In November of 2024, Mike underwent a difficult liver surgery to remove the tumors. Recovery was slow but he started gaining weight and strength back – enough to take a trip to Maui, Hawaii with Vanessa in January 2025.

In February 2025, Mike began KIMMTRAK, an immunotherapy for HLA-A*02:01-positive patients with unresectable or metastatic Uveal Melanoma. He’s now undergone more than 40 weekly infusions, which require a 90-minute drive each way. Mike and Vanessa put their dog into daycare and make the trip together, dedicated to treating the chore as a “date day.”

“We’ve just made it part of life,” Mike said.

Mike can miss one week of treatment occasionally, which has allowed the couple to travel to Scotland. And they’ll jet set to Australia in January.

Finding Joy Amid Uncertainty

Though life doesn’t look like what the couple envisioned when Mike retired five years ago, they’ve found meaning in the simple routines they’ve established. Coffee together in the morning. Walks with their dog. Lunch out in the city.

Mike has also focused his energy on fixing up the house and finishing tasks he knew would be hard for Vanessa to do alone.

The anxiety of each new scan is still there, Vanessa said. And the physical reminders of treatment’s toll are too – Mike’s hair and skin are now all white and his skin is extremely sensitive to the sun.

Love and Partnership

Both Mike and Vanessa are quick to say that melanoma is a relationship tester but one that can bring people together in their support and love for each other. They both said that seeing therapists, maintaining routines, and finding ways to stay connected and prioritize a sense of humor has helped them through it.

Living in the Current Chapter

“It’s a journey and ours has had a few different chapters,” Mike said. “We’re just trying to enjoy the chapter we’re in now.”