A WIFE'S PAIN OF HOPE

Hurnietha Delane Shahid lives her husband’s passion everyday.
         Hurnietha is the wife of Mellve Shahid Sr., founder and CEO of The Empowerment Network (TEN), a non-profit, prostate cancer advocacy and education organization Mellve founded following his bout with the disease that disproportionally impacts African-American males. Mellve is the six-year prostate cancer survivor.
        The organization he founded is his heart, his passion; he promised God that if he lived he would dedicate his life supporting other men and their families deal with prostate cancer.
         Mellve spends a lot of time doing the work of The Empowerment Network, and at the TEN Cancer Center, which is not too far from the couple's home. On occasions, Mellve wonders out loud why she doesn’t come by the center for a visit more often.

         “He doesn’t fully understand that he is the office. TEN is him. TEN is not just there, it’s here, too,” she said from the Shadid's relaxing living room.

         During the period in 2007 when Mellve was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the surgery and recovery that followed, she was not only his nurse, dealing with the very personal aspects of the disease, but the researcher, too. It was Hurnietha who inspired Mellve to develop the "After-Surgery Kit,"  a collection of personal items given to men upon their release from the hospital. She also was the inspiration behind the “blue ties” of TEN’s annual fund raising event, the Blue Tie Gala.  

         In 2006, a year before Mellve’s prostate cancer battle began, Hurnietha was diagnosed with lupus, a painful disease that impairs the body's immune system. Mellve’s mother died in the same year, too.

         “My prayer to God was to put the pain on me because I would be able to handle it better than him,” she said. “I didn’t feel sorry for him. But because of my love for him I didn’t want him to go through the pain.”

         As the work of TEN grows and becomes more demanding on her husband, Hurnietha acknowledges that there are lots of times when he’s “away from me, away from the bed that I would just have to say, ‘I see him later.’ ”

         “It can be overwhelming. Some days I don’t want prostate cancer to be talked about at all. But I’m proud of Mellve and I want him to keep going. It is his passion.”  

         Visit www.TheEmpowermentNetwork.net for more information on prostate cancer.