Amy E. Lessack, versatile executive and cancer advocate, dies at 55

Amy E. Lessack, 55, of Blue Bell, an exuberant corporate learning and development director, a versatile former bank executive, and a tireless advocate for those affected by cancer, died Saturday, Feb. 20, of breast cancer at home.

Ms. Lessack was diagnosed when she was 36 and spent the rest of her life showing others that the disease, as all-consuming as it can be, need not define her or them. Although never in remission and continuously in treatment and on medication, Ms. Lessack smiled endlessly, laughed, and talked of a brighter future.

“She never complained,” said her sister, Abby Lessack. “That’s why people gravitated to her. She collected friends. You wouldn’t see her for months. But when you did, she’d pick right up where you left off.”

“She always said that battling cancer did not make her bitter,” said her mother, Arlene Lessack. “It made her better.”

Born in Abington on Aug. 18, 1965, and raised in Fort Washington, Ms. Lessack graduated from Upper Dublin High School in 1983, and from Pennsylvania State University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in business.

She earned a master’s degree in educational and instructional technology at Penn State in 2000 and spent the last nine years as director of enterprise learning and development at AmerisourceBergen Corp., a drug wholesale company based in Chesterbrook.

Earlier, she had been, among other positions, a banking officer at PNC from 1987-1994, at First Union from 1995-2004, and at Wells Fargo from 2005-2011. She rose from a teller at PNC to senior vice president and regional development manager at Wells Fargo.

Ms. Lessack’s work took her around the country and the world. She worked in Pittsburgh and Charlotte before returning to the Philadelphia area, and made business trips to, among other places, Europe, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam.

After her diagnosis, Ms. Lessack fought breast cancer with the same zeal she mustered for other challenges. She often drove herself to treatment sessions at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia, and the valets always made sure she got a parking space for her red convertible.

She had a party to mark her most serious surgery, and constantly told others going through cancer treatments that the fight was worth it. She was a board member from 2012-2017 and longtime volunteer at Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a national nonprofit based in Bala Cynwyd, and received its Going Beyond award in 2013.

Her fund-raising team was called “Thrivin’ and Survivin.’”

“Amy was a badass and will always be part of the LBBC circle,” a friend wrote on social media.

“The world needs more people like her,” another wrote.

People called her “a connector,” and she made friends with the nurses who cared for her on her last day.

“She was a magnet for people,” her mother said. “She had a megawatt smile.”

“She was sunshine,” her sister said.

Ms. Lessack enjoyed tennis, diving, and waterskiing. Her mother got her on the children’s TV show Romper Room when she was a kid, and she and her sister so embraced the YMCA’s Camp Tockwogh in Maryland as kids that both returned as adults to be counselors and staff.

She called one of her oldest friends to sing “Happy Birthday” every year. Devoted to her father, Jordan Lessack, the two shared a love of cars, sports, and his extensive train collection. He died in 2019.

“She fought with grace and dignity, even in her final moments,” her family wrote in a tribute. “Not once did she bemoan the diagnosis. Instead, it inspired her to live life to its fullest.”

In addition to her mother and sister, Ms. Lessack is survived by other relatives.

An online service was held on Feb. 24.

Donations in her name may be make to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, 40 Monument Rd., Suite 104, Bala Cynwyd, Pa., 19004.