May Allam was born on January 3, 1991, in Cairo, Egypt, alongside her twin sister. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and began her career in financial advisory before transitioning to structured finance and infrastructure project development, with a particular focus on energy. She also laid the groundwork for the Essam Allam Agriculture Accelerator in the final year of her life. Fiercely intelligent and witty; May loved reading, art, tennis and the sea. She was an encyclopaedia of knowledge—one always left her presence having learned something new. She was wisdom.

In her twenties, May was diagnosed with terminal cancer — and yet she kept on living. Her journey took her across the world to medical centers in search of clinical trials that offered both a chance at life and the hope of advancing research to find a cure for future generations. She lived from a suitcase, studying her disease in depth until she became, in many ways, a doctor in her own right.

For seven years, she battled cancer in silence. Chin up. She was courage. Always smiling, even in the darkest hours of her health, she could make the whole room laugh. Whenever her illness robbed her of another piece of health, she still showed up with whatever she had left.

She was a formidable force; unwavering in her convictions and steadfast in her loyalty. Bright, bold, sharp, and fierce — she said it like it was. She was real. She cared with ferocity to uphold her values. Tenacious, with a strength of character that would never bend or break, anyone who met her was irrevocably moved by her. She was otherworldly. With a presence you could not deny, May commanded you to be better and do better. The world is a better place for her having lived in it. She was truth.

A life so short, but the depths of which have planted roots for the greatest of trees.

Some people float through this life, a soft and dimming glow. May was a blinding burst of light, and then, in a blink — she was gone.

May Allam was a comet.