How faith, family and friends including Oprah and Azzurra are helping Mel Dzelde fight MND
Radio identity-turned-author Mel Dzelde isn’t letting motor neurone disease or cancer stop her from living her best life – or helping others.
SA Weekend
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA Weekend. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Mel Dzelde’s insides were on fire, but she chose to face the pain with a positive outlook.
That was when she locked eyes with a magical creature.
“Azzurra’s my friendly dragon, she’s out for me, she’s getting rid of the bad stuff,” Dzelde says.
That bad stuff is cancer and Dzelde knows it.
In June, she underwent surgery for her fourth bout of rectal cancer, five months after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
The retired radio identity who, with husband Chris, has worked for Mix 102.3 and Murray Bridge’s Power FM and 5MU, first saw Azzurra in 2017.
Dzelde unleashed the dragon when she was receiving treatment for stage-four rectal cancer and secondary tumours in her liver. The disease was detected following a routine colonoscopy.
“I was visualising the radiotherapy working and it turned into a beautiful dragon within my body that was burning the cancer away, because that is what radiotherapy does,” Dzelde says.
“I had to somehow, in my mind, make that okay … a good burning, a good pain.”
A high school teacher before she ventured into radio, Dzelde has immortalised her inner dragon in a picture book. For children and adults, it is titled Azzurra and vibrantly illustrated by Byron Bay artist Donna Sharam.
It tells the tale of a little girl who is diagnosed with cancer just before her fifth birthday. Making a wish while blowing out the candles on her cake, she magically connects with her inner dragon, Azzurra, and begins her journey towards healing.
The heroine’s name is Melody, which, of course, begs the question: Is Dzelde the little girl in her book?
“Probably,” she says coyly, adding: “Parts of me are.”
In 2000, when Dzelde, now, 51, was mum to a young family, doctors found a large tumour in her liver. At the time, Dzelde and her first husband Sam, who had two boys Shannon and Casey, were expecting their third child.
Waiting until after her baby boy Mackenzie arrived, Dzelde then had a liver resection to remove the tumour. The size of a golf ball, it turned out to be benign.
“I guess that was the first sign of things to come for me,” she says.
When what Dzelde describes as the “serious stuff” began in 2017, having her inner dragon on-board helped quell the fear.
Her treatment plan following that initial diagnosis was a lot to take in. It included five weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, liver and rectal resections and an ileostomy bag, followed by a further five months of chemo.
“I believe that our bodies can heal themselves,” Dzelde says. “I am very cautious not to be around negativity, or to believe any prognosis, because I don’t believe anyone can tell me what my prognosis is. I think I can be in control of that.”
Dzelde’s subsequent recovery delighted her medical team, led by colorectal surgeon Dr Matthew Lawrence.
He had called in the troops – oncologist Dr Sid Selva-Nayagam, liver surgeon Dr Robert Padbury and radiotherapy specialist Dr Marcus Dreosti. They, and Dr Lawrence are still part of Team Dzelde, which now includes liver surgeon Dr John Chen and integrative doctor Dr Sinclair Bode. Dr Lawrence said Dzelde was a “miracle”.
Dzelde says, “As much as I use doctors and science to help me, I also believe there are other therapies and natural things that you can do to complement and assist in healing and I bring in all the arsenal.”
Dzelde’s weapons of choice include her Christian faith and spirituality. She prays nightly and has a morning ritual.
“When I wake up I do a gratitude moment as I sit up in bed: ‘I’m so grateful for this day, another day in my beautiful life’,” she says.
Dzelde also taps into “whatever keeps my vibration high”. That ranges from books recommended by her friend Oprah Winfrey, whom she met in 2002 at an International Women’s Conference in Detroit, to visualisation-meditation. While some might see it as unorthodox, the practice manifested Dzelde’s inner dragon.
Azzurra remained a fierce ally when Dzelde steeled herself for another round of surgery and treatment after tumours returned in her liver in late 2018 and, again, she recovered.
The cancer came back last year, after which Dzelde was diagnosed with MND in January. At the time she thought the “foot drop” weakness she was experiencing was a side-effect of the chemotherapy.
While the average life expectancy is one to five years following a diagnosis of MND, Dzelde is remaining positive.
“No one can say what MND in me will be like,” she says. “MND is something I know I have which apparently is incurable. I just don’t accept that. I just say ‘there is a cure, they just don’t know what it is yet’. I will find it. Someone has to be the first person cured. It may as well be me!”
Living with MND, Dzelde was cancer-free once more until she was dealt another blow earlier this year, with the discovery of another liver tumour.
“In total, I have had nine operations to remove cancer from my body and been on chemotherapy multiple times and have had radiotherapy as well,” she says. “It’s been pretty full-on, intensive treatment for the last four years.”
Chris, her husband of eight years, has been by her side, every day.
The Adelaide Hills couple made the joint decision to leave radio 12 months ago, to concentrate on Dzelde’s health and spend more time with family and friends.
While Chris still does some relief work at Cruise 1323, he has now taken on the role of being a full-time carer for his wife.
Dzelde requires assistance to get around, mostly relying on a wheelchair and Chris. “He’s incredible – I don’t think I have ever met anyone as supportive as Chris,” Dzelde says. “Chris has given up everything, really, to look after me. He cares for me night and day.”
Seeing all Chris does for her, Dzelde would like to see more recognition of the vital role of carers in the community.
“While there’s so much support available for the patient, there doesn’t seem to be as much for the carer. I would like to see that improve,” she says. “Carers are amazing people. They give up their whole life, really, to look after another person.
“MND, particularly, is quite debilitating. Chris helps me get dressed in the morning – he’s really, really caring for me now. He does all the cooking and cleaning – everything. He’s a very special person.”
For Dzelde, who has recently adopted a special diet to help heal her gut after chemo and improve her energy levels, visualisation-meditation is still a daily ritual. “You can put your mind into a state of being and then your body has to catch up with your mind. I visualise myself healed, completely healed,” she says. “I’m very blessed to have the team of doctors I have here in Adelaide … they sometimes roll their eyes and they sometimes tell me ‘whatever you reckon Mel’.”
But they play along, especially when it comes to music therapy such as the uplifting song (It’s Gonna Be) Okay, by one of Dzelde’s favourite artists Cliff Richard.
“Dr Lawrence let me play it as I was going to sleep in the operating theatre for each of my surgeries, she says. “That’s the sort of doctors I have. They work with me and what I believe, and I think it’s working. I’m still here.”
Colour therapy is also important to Dzelde, who explains green is for healing: “If you need some happiness get some yellow. Look at it or close your eyes and visualise it, or wear a top in that colour to help you.”
The healing power of colour is also very much a part of Dzelde’s book Azzurra.
Its story came to her last year during a visualisation-meditation session, while she was bedridden during chemotherapy treatment. At its heart is a powerful message for children who have been diagnosed with cancer: Connect to your inner dragon to keep your vibration high.
“I wanted to give them a tool that is outside of treatment,” she says. “To show them that they do have a sense of power.
“Unfortunately, cancer has a negative vibration and children definitely feel this. If you are sensitive – which children are – to vibrations around you, that does not help when you are trying to heal.”
Dzelde immediately knew she wanted Donna Sharam to illustrate the book. “Her art is colour therapy,” Dzelde says of the vivid works. “When I first got that diagnosis of rectal cancer I bought one of her paintings, a peace tree.
“I wanted to put it somewhere where I could see it every day … to have that visual of colour, peace and happiness. It really worked and I knew her art would be perfect for this book.”
The book is also designed to demystify cancer for the patient’s siblings, parents, grandparents and carers. It is Dzelde’s dream that it will have a special place in every children’s hospital in Australia and places such as Ronald McDonald House.
“I would love for it to be anywhere it can help any child going through cancer or any other difficulty they are struggling with, because the same things apply: Keep the vibration high, listen to your inner dragon because it will guide you; use things like colour therapy or whatever heals you, be it music, sport, exercise … those things that keep your vibration high.”
• Azzurra is the first in a series of The Dragons of Plenshia books Dzelde is writing, illustrated by Sharam. They are working on a second book and looking for a publisher.
• Azzurra is available here
• October 10-16 is National Carers Week recognising the 2.65 million Australians who care for a family member or friend. More information here
• More information about motor neurone disease here
Brutal pop star ticket scam leaves Adelaide fans reeling
These Blakeview sisters say they didn’t realise what was wrong until it was far too late.
They said it when Daniel was taken. They stand by it today
Bruce and Denise Morcombe never gave up on finding Daniel or the monster responsible for taking their boy. Twenty-one years later, they refuse to give up on Daniel’s legacy.