Seems odd to some, to want to celebrate & mark something like Cancer.
But today is a milestone day….a date that I had hoped I would reach…but I wasn’t sure a year ago that I would.
June 11th 2013 in a small room at Gloucester Royal Hospital I was informed by a Macmillan Dermatological nurse that I had Melanoma. I remember that moment….that day like it was yesterday.
3 hours later that same day the offending Melanoma was removed from my back leaving a substantial scar. The scar to my heart & soul as great …if not greater than the physical mark.
My world changed.
My life…how I lived….who I wanted to be and why….all suddenly different.
Like almost everyone I have spoken to since I knew so little about what Melanoma was and what it meant. I don’t think I even really understood what skin cancer meant…other than I didn’t want it and needed to protect my skin & the skin of the Little People because we are fair. I knew the ABCDE checklist…but naively thought once cut out and removed that that, would be it. The words Ulceration, Mitotic Rate and Breslow depth hadn’t even entered my personal life dictionary.
Little did I know back then, that the mole that was taken away …that seemingly insignificant thing would have a domino like effect on our blissful ignorance…our plans as a family for a future.
That was then. The scar looking deep red and the skin around puffy, swollen and bruised. Now the scar is fading…turning silver…stretching slightly over time as I move.
And so a year has passed.
I have just completed a huge personal physical challenge – something that would have been a feat even before Melanoma…yet somehow had so much more importance to me….because that challenge was one that I could control.
I have done my research…I understand the odds are not stacked in my favour…I appreciate that there are massive improvements all the time medically & scientifically but that there is just as much chance that Melanoma could strike again before those advancements are complete….that is why I asked you all to sponsor my run…to help speed that process along….more research…more options…more hope.
I eat the right sort of diet, rich with Superfoods…I exercise and oxygenate my cells…I have a team of professionals that look after my health that I trust.
I am doing my bit….to live…to stay around for more Cancervarsaries…and each one I will mark…and say quiet thanks that I am still here.
I don’t ask for sympathy…or expect it.
I want you to be aware…to be careful of your skin. To understand that if something like a sinister mole is left on just that teensy bit too long it can derail everything in your life in a matter of minutes.
Take a moment and think before you sit outside without Sunlotion…before you burn….before you try to achieve a deep tan. Take a moment….and think of me….think of how I spend sunny days….trying to relax & enjoy the sunshine with my family, whilst listening to a voice in my head shouting “bad sun”!
I try to live a normal life…I could be here (fingers very, very crossed) for all of the Little Peoples childhoods….and I don’t want them to look back on this time as a time of sadness or fear.
Melanoma does not own me….it wants to…it will try…and I will fight.
So today I will not be saddened….ok perhaps a little tearful at times….but today I shall rejoice. I am here. Melanoma has not beaten me.
Happy 1st Cancerversary to me x