Sarah thought skin cancer only happened to other people but a skin check on very small but suspicious mole was life changing and life saving.
In sharing her story Sarah hopes she can encourage others to take Sun and UV safety more seriously.
At 33 years old, with a one year old son splashing around in the bath in front of me, skin cancer was the last thing on my mind.
I wasn’t checking my skin. I wasn’t looking for melanoma. I was simply bathing my little boy when I noticed two tiny dark moles on my arm.
One of them was no bigger than a pinprick. Most people wouldn’t have looked twice at it.
But I knew my skin, and something didn’t feel right. It looked different from my other moles. It was darker. New. Out of place.
I decided to get it checked. That decision changed everything.
One mole was harmless. The other was stage 0 Melanoma.
“Cancer”
People hear “stage 0” and often think it’s nothing serious. But when you receive the phone call to be told you have Melanoma, the stage suddenly feels irrelevant. All you hear is the word cancer.
And all I could think about was my son.
Would I be here to watch him grow up? Would I see his first day at school? Would I see him become a man?
Those thoughts arrive instantly, whether your cancer is stage 0 or stage 4.
The Melanoma was removed, but I soon needed a second operation to take wider margins of skin around the site. Waiting for those results felt endless.
Thankfully, I was eventually told that all the Melanoma had been removed and the margins were clear.
I was one of the lucky ones. But what I’ve been left with is more than scars. I’ve been left with the knowledge that the years I spent chasing a tan were never worth it.
For years I used sunbeds. For years I believed having tanned skin made me look healthier, more attractive, more confident. I spent money and time exposing myself to UV radiation because I wanted a glow.
Now I look at the scar on my arm and realise how much I underestimated the risks.
Today, I still enjoy having a glow, but I achieve it safely. I wear SPF. I avoid sunbeds. I protect my skin, because confidence should never come at the cost of your health.
The mole that changed my life was the size of a pinprick. It didn’t hurt. It wasn’t dramatic. It would have been easy to ignore.
That’s why I’m sharing my story.
If you notice something new, something changing, or something that simply doesn’t look right, get it checked. Don’t wait. Don’t assume it’s nothing.
I nearly ignored mine. And that tiny black dot turned out to be Melanoma
Sarah
Thanks so much Sarah from all the team at Melanoma UK and anyone out there who will be influenced by your story to be more sun safe, avoid sunbeds and get to know and check their skin.
