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There will be no lap swim on Thursdays from 3:45 - 5 p.m. from May 1 - 29.
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The pool will be closed from 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 22.
Visiting the area? Learn more about guest use of the facility here
How Adirondack Health Medical Fitness Center Gave Melissa Her Life Back
Melissa has called the Adirondacks home for over 40 years. An avid skier, hiker, and kayaker, she embraced the outdoors with the same energy she brought to her work as a substitute teacher. But her world changed when she was diagnosed with stage four melanoma, followed by heart complications, and leukemia years later. Her leukemia diagnosis started a six-year battle – one that left her confined to a wheelchair, relearning how to walk.
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“The hardest thing to overcome in a serious illness, I think, is depression,” Melissa said. “And that’s where this facility was lifesaving.” The treatments that saved her life also left her body devastated, but her most difficult challenge was something deeper. Melissa needed something in her life to help her regain some independence.​
​With her doctor’s special approval and the incredible care of the staff at the Adirondack Health Medical Fitness Center, Melissa was allowed into the pool. Because she was immune-compromised, this meant there needed to be extra precautions - alone in her own lane, arriving in a wheelchair, and unable to speak face-to-face with others. Still, the staff made it possible. “Jeff and Mike would sanitize the changing room before I got there and then helped me into the water.”
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And in the water, something extraordinary happened.
“I felt free” Melissa said. “A lot of people, when they’re very ill, feel trapped in a body that’s betraying them. Because I had this one thing I could do; it saved my life.”
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That feeling became Melissa’s anchor. It gave her hope and strength when her body gave her nothing else. She would think, “If I can feel this now, I should be able to feel it all the time and I would try to live that feeling for the rest of the day.”
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Thanks to a scholarship from the fitness center, Melissa now works one-on-one with a personal trainer. “We’re essentially starting at the beginning” she explained. “Six years of being bedridden, chair-ridden – you don’t recover from that overnight.”
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With the gentle guidance of her trainer, she’s rebuilding her strength, her mobility, and her confidence. She’s also found a deep sense of community in the group classes. “Everybody encourages everybody,” she said. “We may not see each other outside the fitness center, but there is a network here. A camaraderie. A shared purpose.”
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She remembers wondering if this was the right place for her in the beginning. But what she discovered was something different. “This isn’t a gym, it’s a health center. It allows you to be who you are, where you are, and move towards whatever goal you’ve set for yourself.”
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For Melissa, that goal is simple: to walk comfortably up the stairs, to hike Mount Baker, and to swim a mile. “If a 92-year-old man here can get on the treadmill” she said, “then I can too!”
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Melissa’s story is a powerful reminder that healing isn’t just physical. She believes the Adirondack Health Medical Fitness Center gave her so much more than movement; it gave her back her life.
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In March of 2025, Melissa received the all clear from her oncologists. “Without this facility,” Melissa shared, “I honestly think the outcome would not have been the same.”
My Story
Donations to the Adirondack Health Foundation's Lake Placid Medical Fitness Fund enable us to invest in programs, equipment, and services that enhance patient care at the fitness center.