The Melissa Carroll Legacy Fund

On the night of March 31, 2014, the world became a darker place when New York artist and A Fresh Chapter alumni, Melissa Carroll, passed away. Selected to participate in A Fresh Chapter’s pilot program to India in February 2013, Melissa had a recurrence of her cancer six weeks before our departure. Even with this devastating news, she was determined to make her dream of India come true. Three weeks after resuming chemotherapy, Melissa boarded a flight from New York to New Delhi.

While in India, she wasn’t Melissa the cancer patient. She was Melissa the artist, the lover of puppets, the girl with an easy laugh, the teacher of art, and the student of India. She loved India and India loved her. Strangers asked to get their photos taken with her when we went sightseeing. Kids in the school where she volunteered crowded around her feet asking her to draw their pictures. For those two weeks, cancer wasn’t her story, life was.

Legacy of Hope and Healing

The morning after Melissa left this world, we heard from her family telling us they wanted all donations in Melissa’s memory to come to A Fresh Chapter. Inspired and honored, we created the Melissa Carroll Legacy Fund (MCLF) to help other people impacted by cancer heal the emotional scars of the disease through volunteering, meaningful travel, and activities designed to reframe adversity and redefine what is possible.

Read Terri Wingham’s tribute to Melissa on the A Fresh Chapter blog: Melissa Carroll: A Tribute To Her Final Chapter. Or, read these wonderfully written pieces about Melissa’s life and work – Melissa Carroll’s Technicolor Dream and As Light Is Said to Do – and find her honored in the pages of Between Two Kingdoms.

From 2014 – 2019, the MCLF was able to offer scholarships for individuals who demonstrated financial need, who were not able to fundraise the full program fee of our two-week immersive Odyssey programs, and who had created a well-defined Ripple Impact Action Plan. You can meet some of the MCLF recipients by clicking here.

To learn more about how the fund began, visit this post: Paul Carroll, founder of the Melissa Carroll Legacy Fund.

Sparking A Fresh Chapter in South Africa Through an Elevate Fellowship

It is an honor for all of us at A Fresh Chapter to collaborate with Melissa’s family as we continue to grow and expand Melissa’s Fund.

In 2023, this fund will be part of helping to bring AFC’s model to South Africa. In partnership with Kenyan cancer advocates, AFC has developed an evidence-informed psychosocial support model that empowers African cancer survivors and caregivers to heal the emotional scars of cancer and mobilize as leaders. Through peer-led supportive education programs, patients, survivors, and caregivers discover new tools and resources to help them cope with the adversity of cancer. In addition, they gain the confidence to share their cancer stories, which is helping reduce stigma and promote early detection and screening of cancers. 

To date, AFC has delivered its programming to more than 1000 Kenyans and begun to cultivate more than 20 future facilitators. In addition to expanding its work in Kenya, AFC’s vision is to scale this model to additional African countries with a larger goal of serving 15,000 Africans by the end of 2025.

As part of bringing this vision to life, in 2023, the MCLF will grant one South African cancer survivor or caregiver the opportunity to:

• Participate in AFC’s 10-week virtual Ignite Experience, customized for the African culture and led by Kenyan Facilitators.
• Become part of the 2023 Africa Elevate Fellowship Program in Kenya. and travel to Kenya in September of 2023. While there, the selected fellow will experience an immersive cross-cultural program, gain new perspectives and leadership skills, and participate in local AFC workshops and events alongside 21 other Global Fellows.
• Work closely with the AFC Kenyan and U.S. Team to explore tangible strategies for expanding AFC’s model into South Africa in 2024. 

We can’t wait to work in partnership with the selected South African Fellow to expand access to AFC’s life-changing programs in Africa. Thank you for your support of the Melissa Carroll Legacy Fund and helping to create a ripple of good in the world.