Chloe’s 100 Miles in May for Melanoma

In late 2024, I had a diagnosis of Stage 1B invasive malignant melanoma cancer. So far it has been a rollercoaster of learning what melanoma is, and how it is not ‘just skin cancer’ like so many people assume - including me! I never thought I'd have a cancer diagnosis at the age of 31, and that it would be a very scary result of an odd looking mole.

I'm doing this challenge purely to raise awareness, because I personally had no idea what it meant when I first received my diagnosis, and nor did any of my family or friends. Melanoma Focus was also an incredible support to me when I first got my diagnosis and any money raised for them is a bonus!

What is Melanoma?
Melanoma is a serious form of cancer that arises when the pigment-producing cells in the skin (melanocytes) may display as a mole or lesion that grows, changes shape, or colour.  Only about 3 percent of all skin cancers are melanoma, and there are other skin cancers that are non-melanoma skin cancers.

Melanoma is the UK’s most rapidly increasing type of cancer, with around 17,500 new cases every year, and more people die of melanoma per year in the UK than in Australia.

Awareness and early detection saves lives
Although not all cases of melanoma are preventable, 86% are! Yet, increasing numbers of people are being diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer every year. Being sun safe and checking your skin is more important than I ever realised. Please, wear lots of decent SPF, and don't use sunbeds. I did, and I regret it!

One easy way to remember what to check is the ABCDE rule of melanoma, which you can find more about on the Melanoma Focus website here, or online by googling 'ABCDE melanoma'.

My experience
My melanoma journey started with a mole on my back that was slowly changing last year. I have always had a lot of moles, but according to Wes (as I couldn’t see it myself!), this one began to look different and eventually, after several attempts, he convinced me that I should go to the GP just to be safe. The GP was great and gave me an urgent referral to the Dermatology department to have it checked a couple of weeks later. In that appointment the Dermatologist confirmed that the mole looked concerning to them and so removed it immediately during the appointment.
 
We thought nothing of it, other than assuming that if it is something bad, at least it’s gone now! However, a few weeks later, they called us back in to share the news that I have Stage 1B invasive malignant melanoma cancer – which essentially means the melanoma has grown deeper than the outer layer of my skin and therefore could have spread internally.  Finding that I now needed an operation to check if the cancer has spread was a complete shock, especially when I didn’t know that 'just skin cancer' could even do that.
 
I then had an operation where I had some more of the area around the original mole removed, which is a preventative measure to reduce a risk of recurrence, and a lymph node biopsy to check for spread which would upgrade the diagnosis to Stage 3 if they found anything in there.
 
A few weeks after the surgery I had the amazing result that no cancer has been found in the lymph node they biopsied, which means I’m currently still Stage 1B, but now ‘NED’ (No Evidence of Disease).  This means I will be monitored closely by my cancer team for 5 years to make sure that melanoma doesn’t reveal itself again one day – either somewhere on my skin as a new primary melanoma, or internal spread from my original melanoma. It’s still scary and I’m at high risk, but so far I am okay and it is highly likely to stay that way.

I feel very lucky that we caught it early enough and I am currently NED. However, if I knew what I was looking for, it could have been caught even earlier when it was just confined to the epidermis (also known as Stage 0 or melanoma-in-situ) when there was zero risk at all of spread.

I really don't expect much for donations as my main driver for this is that people learn about what Melanoma is, and how to look out for it, so my main ask is that you spend some time learning and sharing with the people you love. Early detection and prevention really does save lives!

Extra big thank you if you read all of this and tell someone else about it 😊 I really appreciate it!