Melanoma Awareness - it’s NOT just skin cancer!

“Cancer - no not me!!”

You never think you are going to hear those words “ You have cancer” but that is the hammer blow I received in 2017.

In fairness to a lot of people around me the initial reaction was obviously shock but followed with “ its only skin cancer, you will be fine”

In all honesty that was probably my first sub-conscious reaction, but the reality soon dawned that it was an aggressive malignant Melanoma which is not as straight forward as I and others around me hoped and thought.

It was actually an extremely traumatic experience and has left with me with permanent disfigurement, lymphedema, life time of scans and actually led to the end of my career with the Police.

The common perception that Skin Cancer is purely on the surface and is a routine medical treatment is purely down to a lack of awareness which is not the case with many of the higher profile cancers.

The treatment, care and attention I received from the point of diagnosis was faultless, I cannot thank the NHS enough.

With this in mind and coupled with the fact that MAY is MELANOMA AWARENESS Month my intention is to walk 100 miles during the month of May. The main purpose for this is to raise everyone’s awareness around Melanoma and I will be sharing information during the course of the month.

As a personal thank you from me I intend to donate some funds to Melanoma Focus and SKCIN and should you wish to make a donation of any amount, link is attached.

Thank you