UNR grad Alicia Parlette, who chronicled cancer battle, prepares to say goodbye

[tonysam]

Sad story, as her fight against a rare form of cancer is about to come to an end:

Alicia Parlette has finally found comfort in her own story.

Parlette, 28, a 2004 University of Nevada, Reno graduate and a promising young journalist has spent the last week saying goodbye to friends and family after a five-year battle with cancer. She is remembered by thousands who read her San Francisco Chronicle series, “Alicia’s story,” a frank first-person account of cancer.

The new copy editor landed what she said was her “dream job” in 2005 at the San Francisco Chronicle when she found out she had a rare form of cancer in her hip, breast and lungs called alveolar soft part sarcoma. She was 23 when her doctor called her at work with the news. The Chronicle’s managing editor then, Robert Rosenthal, approached Parlette about telling her story.

“We knew right from the beginning it wasn’t going to be a happy ending,” he said. “I was asking someone who had this horrible cancer and might not recover, to do this.”

Parlette looked at telling her story as an opportunity to help other people. The paper received thousands of responses to the 17-part series, which Parlette later turned in to a book.

Reno Gazette-Journal

[Fumesucker]

1. Godspeed Alicia..

:hug:

[cilla4progress]

2. I spent the weekend

reading all 17 chapters of her story. Riveting. I couldn't stop till I was done. I don't know why -- such a shameful loss. Blessings on Alicia.

[CoffeeCat]

3. I read the series of articles...

...that Alicia wrote about her fight with cancer. From her initial
diagnosis, to all of the tests to her fight. It was all so raw and
real. Very emotional.

I find myself feeling so angry. She had leg pain and went to her
doctor, who gave her an MRI. He diagnosed the pain as coming from
a cluster of blood vessels in her hip. Turns out there was a tumor
in those blood vessels that went undiagnosed and grew for several
years before she was properly diagnosed with cancer.

I just keep thinking...if only, if only...

So sad. Such a bright, wonderful, warm young woman.

[laughingliberal]

4. Heartbreaking. nt

[tonysam]

5. A kick for this tragic story n/t

[tonysam]

6. S. F. Chronicle article from the 16th

San Francisco Chronicle

When Robert Rosenthal, the former Chronicle managing editor who oversaw her newspaper series, visited Parlette recently, she asked him to write down his observations.

In a blog he posted on msparlette.com, he described her glee over a caramel Frappuccino and apple fritter brought by a friend, her laughter muffled behind the oxygen mask.

"She's an amazing person, incredibly courageous and honest," Rosenthal said. "She always knew this was going to happen, and she's relatively at peace."

Rosenthal and Parlette got the idea for "Alicia's Story" shortly after she was diagnosed, when she told him in casual conversation that she had started a diary. He asked whether she would want to tell her story, and in two days, she returned with 3,000 words.

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. kick