‘Live like Liv’ Sat. with Kelly’s Angels and make dreams come true
After losing her teenage daughter Liv to cancer, Mellisa Allen tells her story and invites you to Saturday's Kelly’s Angels gala to help raise money for other cancer-stricken families.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — I challenge anyone to spend even five minutes with Mellisa Allen and not leave with a full heart and a determination to “Live like Liv.”
“Liv” is her bright and beautiful daughter Olivia, who lost her battle with leukemia on March 28, 2024 — way too young, at age 18.
And you can “Live like Liv” — both in the bigger sense of the movement in honor of a “love bug” of a young woman who never gave up, and this Saturday at the special “15 years of Love” Kelly’s Angels gala at 6 p.m. at the City Center.
“The work they do is incredible,” Mellisa says of the nonprofit founded by Channel 13’s Mark Mulholland to “bring smiles to kids and families dealing with or having lost a battle to cancer or other life-threatening illnesses.” “Whether it’s scholarships, fund grants, or angel aid, they do things for families before, during and after. The missing piece for a lot of families is life after — you don’t want to think about it, but it’s so important…the ability to have a little piece of joy at the same time as all the sadness — even if it’s for a short period of time — [Mark] gave that to us. I couldn’t be more thankful to his organization.”
The Allen family’s journey with Kelly’s Angels began when Liv was diagnosed with leukemia and recommended for the Kelly’s Angels Fund grant. Her wish? To see country star Morgan Wallen in concert.
“Unless you’re in the hospital setting regularly, you might not know how important music becomes,” Mellisa says. “Liv listened to Morgan Wallen daily, hourly. Just thinking about it, makes me want to cry. I wish Morgan Wallen would know, because it really is what carried her through on her darkest days.”
Kelly’s Angels granted her wish. Liv chose the concert — Tampa, in the state she loved so much that she had planned to go to college there, at Florida State — and planned the whole thing, down to the seat assignments.
Sadly, her health soon declined, and the Saratoga Springs High School graduate passed away before the concert. But the magic of the Kelly’s Angels gift wasn’t done — Sophia Allen, now 17, didn’t want to see her big sister’s dream go unfulfilled.
“Sophia, Sophia’s best friend and I went in Liv’s place,” Mellisa says. “We got to the stadium Liv picked out — in the seats that she picked out on her own — and right across the stadium from us is a huge ‘2020 LIV’ with a football. I don’t even know really what it means, but it said, ‘LIV.’
“It was the most beautiful night.”
Since then, the Allens — Mellisa, Sophia and Liv’s dad, Chuck — have done the Kelly’s Angels Mother-Lovin’ 5k and formed the biggest team for both of the last two years. There’s even a Kelly’s Angels “Live like Liv” scholarship in the memory of Olivia Grace Allen, a rally cry to encourage students at 14 Saratoga schools to value “perseverance, positivity, kindness, and commitment to helping others.”
The Allens will be at the gala this Saturday, October 11, from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Saratoga Springs City Center. All proceeds benefit Kelly’s Angels to help Capital Region children who have lost a parent or sibling to cancer or other illness or are battling a life-threatening condition. For more info and to buy your tickets, please visit kellysangelsinc.org.