Kicking Cancer's Butt
/Melissa Hanneman approached her colorectal cancer journey with humor and heart
By Jessee Warren
photo by shane darby.
Life-threatening illness is a facet of reality that seems inescapable. Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the U.S. While it would be convenient to imagine these as things that come for us in old age, after a life well lived, most of us are all too aware that a person could come face-to-face with something like cancer at any point in life. When it happened to Melissa Hanneman, it almost seemed as if she’d finally met an inevitability.
“Strangely enough, my first feeling was ‘I’m not surprised,’” Melissa said when asked how she felt after receiving the news of her cancer diagnosis. “I assumed that I would face cancer of some sort eventually, and here it was. I was fairly healthy, in a good space mentally. Then, two heartbeats later, I freaked out. My emotions were all over the place.”
Melissa, age 46, is a wife of 16 years, a mother of 13 years, a Navy veteran, and a full-time real estate agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. She lives here in Texarkana with her husband, Chris, and daughter, Rylie. In March of 2025, Melissa went in for a colonoscopy after experiencing an ongoing health issue that revealed itself to be a symptom of colorectal cancer.
“I learned a long time ago that happiness is a choice. I had to actively choose it every day, and what better way than to laugh?”
While symptomatic for more than a year, Melissa was only experiencing one symptom out of many, and not one strictly associated with colorectal cancer—a sobering example of just how stealthily cancer can make an entrance into a person’s life. A colonoscopy showed an ulcerated mass, which pathology results revealed to be cancerous. Melissa consulted with a surgical oncologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where she would undergo surgery to have the mass removed just eight days later.
Fortunately for Melissa, her fight against cancer, while not without its challenges, was quick, decisive, and rallied by the love and support of the people in her life. When asked if anyone played an important role in helping her through this experience, she named not only her family and close friends but also her brokerage, past clients, and even real estate agents from other offices. The outpouring of support “helped me see that I have a huge and loving village surrounding me,” she said.
Melissa with her husband of 16 years, Chris, and her daughter, Rylie. submitted photo.
In the days leading up to the consultation and surgery, Melissa remained active on her TikTok account, posting regular videos. These candid vignettes of Melissa’s life from this time show her acknowledging and processing her situation while making jokes, sharing family activities, and assuring everyone in her professional realm that she wasn’t going anywhere. In one particular video, she explains to viewers that, while it may have looked like she was making light of the situation, she was simply using humor to cope with her feelings and keep those close to her more at ease.
Melissa is seen here trying to negotiate a contract while still in post-op recovery. submitted photo.
“I learned a long time ago that happiness is a choice,” she said. “I had to actively choose it every day, and what better way than to laugh? It wasn’t always lighthearted fun, but I wanted to keep everyone’s spirits up. My cancer can be embarrassing or uncomfortable for some people, but I found addressing it in a humorous way helped others be comfortable with it. I mean, of all the cancers out there, I get butt cancer? Come on!”
When Melissa was at her lowest, longtime friend Sandy Tutt drove from New Boston to sit with her and cheer her up. submitted photo.
After undergoing a low anterior resection surgery on March 28th, Melissa continued periodically updating TikTok followers throughout her four-day recovery period at UAMS. Two weeks later, she was informed that the surgery was successful and no chemotherapy would be needed. She continues to go to appointments periodically for scans and check-ups. Her recovery from the procedure is still ongoing; an ironic fact of cancer is that treating it effectively can sometimes mean inflicting more harm on yourself than the disease itself ever gets a chance to. Recovering from the surgery has been “very painful, as they cut through my abdominal muscles in multiple places,” Melissa explained. “My plumbing has drastically changed, so finding a new normal is an ongoing process.”
This photo was taken after Melissa’s post-op checkup, where her surgical oncologist at UAMS told her that no chemo was needed. She sent this to what she has dubbed her “booty buddies.” submitted photo.
While that might sound like the hardest part of it all, Melissa said that, for her, it has been “feeling like a fraud because [my cancer] ‘journey’ was so short,” she said. This is understandable, given that there is no shortage of harrowing cancer stories in the world. However, no cancer journey is easy, and Melissa’s resilience and positivity while staring down her own mortality has inspired countless people, in-person and online. If anything, Melissa’s story demonstrates that not all encounters with cancer mean doom. Sometimes cancer loses, and its opponent is rewarded with a new appreciation for life and the people in it.