Melanie and Wayne Peace with daughter Mary, center, over the summer. Mary Peace is a freshman on the UF women's soccer team. (Photo: Mary Howard/UAA Communications)
Touched by Cancer, Peace Family has Renewed Outlook
Thursday, October 18, 2018 | Football, Soccer, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – More than 40 years later, Wayne Peace has no trouble recalling the details.
"Still remember what she was wearing,'' said Peace, the former Gators quarterback and Sports Illustrated cover boy.
Peace was a ninth-grader at Crystal Lake Middle School in Polk County. Melanie Britt was a ninth-grader at Lakeland Highlands Middle School. They were at a Lakeland High School junior-varsity football game when Wayne's eyes first flickered at the sight of his future wife.
"She was wearing a blue-jean outfit,'' Peace said Wednesday night. "I'll never forget it."
Melanie and Wayne grew up together from that moment, both attending Lakeland High. She was a cheerleader. He was the star quarterback. Their love story unfolded as if straight from a young adult romance novel, first at UF – Wayne starred for the Gators from 1980-83 and Melanie as the other half of the unofficial first couple of Florida football – and later back in their hometown, where Wayne opened a successful insurance business and Melanie stayed busy at home raising their four kids.
Life was good. The couple's sons, Bryant, Britt and Brad, all played football growing up like their dad. Their youngest, Mary, played volleyball and soccer. Eventually, the boys finished high school, went off to college and branched out on their own. Gators soccer player Mary Peace, right, with her mother Melanie. (Photos: Courtesy of Melanie Peace)
Mary, the youngest by more than four years, started to blossom as a prep soccer player at Lakeland Christian. In December 2015, at a showcase event with a horde of college coaches in attendance, Mary Peace caught the attention of Gators head coach Becky Burleigh and her staff.
Burleigh extended an offer. Mary committed to the Gators, making her the first of the Peace children set to play sports at the collegiate level. Adding to the family's fortunes, Mary was going to play at UF, where her father remains the school's all-time leader in single-season pass completion percentage (70.7 percent in 1982).
"We are thrilled she is there,'' Melanie said. "We love Becky and that whole coaching staff has been so supportive. If my diagnosis had been sooner and Mary had pulled back from soccer, she probably may not even be at UF right now. The way I look at this, what a blessing that it happened after that showcase."
Sometimes, life's harsh realities intervene and disrupt Cupid's best work. For the Peace family, it happened on Valentine's Day 2016.
Mary Peace, 16 at the time and with a sunny future on the horizon, can finally talk about it. She pauses at times, her eyes misty, but she trudges on. Her bright smile shines through, the last two-plus years forcing her to grow up sooner than expected and in ways she never considered.
"One day everything is fine and the next your whole life has changed,'' Mary said. "It just completely changes everything. You learn that you have to take every single day day-by-day. It's definitely a process. It took me off my feet in soccer. It took over my life. It took me a little bit to shake it and get past it."
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In the United States, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, part of the international health campaign started in 1985 to raise awareness of a disease that is linked to approximately 500,000 deaths globally each year.
The UF soccer team designates a match each October to raise cancer awareness and to honor survivors. Melanie Peace is one of those survivors, although in her case, she was not diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2016 but instead appendiceal cancer, a much rarer form of the disease.
In an instant, the Peace family's idealistic existence was shattered.
Soon after the diagnosis, Melanie endured a five-hour surgery that included the removal of her appendix, part of her colon and a hysterectomy. She faced months of chemotherapy and recovery time once discharged from the hospital.
"They basically took everything I didn't need," Melanie said. "Not a good prognosis. It's a rare cancer and not a lot of research has been done. We just didn't know." Wayne, Melanie and Mary during one of Melanie's hospital visits.
According to the MD Anderson Cancer Center operated by the University of Texas, fewer than 1,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed annually with appendiceal cancer. The rareness of the disease makes it a complicated one to treat.
The Peace family heavily researched the disease after Melanie's diagnosis and following the initial surgery to remove the appendix and six months of chemotherapy treatments, they settled on additional care at the MD Anderson Center in Houston.
It was there, two years ago this month, that Melanie underwent a hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) procedure that required a 90-minute cocktail of heated chemotherapy in the abdominal cavity to kill any potential microscopic cancer cells remaining.
The doctors did their part and Melanie, who exercised regularly and ate healthy prior to her diagnosis, was determined to do her part in recovery. It's not her nature to sit idle.
The doctors could only do so much. The rest was up to her and her faith in God.
"I'm telling you, as soon as I could, I got up and starting doing those rounds around that hospital floor,'' she said. "It was like the Kentucky Derby."
Melanie returned home after the hospital stay in Texas. She started to eat a plant-based diet. She takes vitamins and supplements regularly. She exercises and lives an active lifestyle.
Two years later, the scans continue to come back cancer-free.
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During her mom's sickest moments, Mary missed much of her junior soccer season at Lakeland Christian. At a time when most Division I soccer recruits are playing year-round, Mary was forced to take a break and put family first.
That has always been Rule No. 1 in the Peace home.
"We were devastated and of course didn't know how long I would be here," Melanie said. "It hit her the hardest because she was young and she is the daughter."
Still, Mary finished her prep career with 117 goals in six seasons on the varsity, the first coming as a seventh-grader. As a senior, she was named Class 1A District 12 Player of the Year.
She arrived at UF over the summer and has not played as a freshman, a year to further her development and get acclimated to the place her parents remember so fondly.
The Peace family's ordeal over the past 32 months has made a much greater impact than on Melanie's cooking and the rest of the family's healthier lifestyle to show support.
For Wayne, who stays connected to the game that made him a household name at UF by working as a volunteer assistant coach at Lakeland Christian, he has a more personal story to share with his young players than anything from the field or in the locker room.
Valentine's Day 2016 serves as a new beginning in his family's journey.
Former Gators quarterback Wayne Peace and wife Melanie, front, with their four kids and daughter-in-law.
"It was the most horrible day in my life, but at the same time, the way it's turned out, a great day in our lives. We all just don't take things for granted anymore,'' Wayne said. "I think we are better human beings because of what we've gone through. You don't look through people the way you used to. You see them as people and you see what they are going through and that everyone goes through tough things in life."
A normalcy has returned to Mary's life. After she finished practice on Wednesday morning, she revisited those tough days and months after Melanie's cancer diagnosis. She became caretaker, a role reversal in so many ways. She got to hang out with her dad more since he was the one taking her to soccer games.
Looking back, Mary said there is nothing that can prepare you for such a drastic life-altering event. It took her more than a year before she could talk at all about her mom's cancer without breaking down.
The passage of time and, of course, Melanie's recovery help greatly.
"It changed all of us,'' Mary said. "When cancer doesn't directly affect you, you feel for it but you never really understand. Now, it hits close to home, recognizing survivors and people who have battled it. It was very random. It wasn't in my family. It's a rare cancer and the odds were't very good. Two years later she is stronger than she was before."
By hearing Melanie discuss her health crisis, it's difficult to imagine how sick she was. She sounds healthy, happy and full of life. Ultimately, she decided to share her story to help others. She wants people to know there is hope when it seems lost in the dark.
She is determined to raise awareness specifically for appendiceal cancer, a disease about which much remains unknown, from causes to risk factors.
"There are a lot of rare cancers out there that don't get the attention,'' Melanie said. "I'm hoping that maybe one day somebody will get ahold of this and start doing research and more digging and studies and hopefully, not too far into the future, we will have a cure."
Meanwhile, Melanie and Wayne get back to Gainesville more than they have in years with Mary and their youngest son, Brad, both UF students.
They have spent more than one weekend this fall going to soccer games on Friday and Sunday, and a Gators football game on Saturday.
Life is good.
"I have done remarkably well considering what I have been through," Melanie said. "I just kept a very positive attitude. I figure God has given us a body that is capable of healing itself, and I have taken on that as my responsibility. I'm doing my part and God is doing the rest."
The cheerleader and the quarterback will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary in December.
