Hi, my name is Regan, I am a regular 19 years old girl who enjoys nothing more to be outdoors and all ready a skin cancer survivor. This is my story...

I was born in Bundaberg in 1991 and raised in Agnes Water until I was 8 years old. As a child growing up in a town where the beach is at your backdoor it wasn’t hard to go home sunburnt, even though mum and dad would nag us about applying sunscreen, expecting to be covered in blisters for the next couple of weeks.

As the years went by my awareness and the awareness of skin cancer around the world increased, although this was the case, I remained oblivious to the fact that it could ever happen to anyone I knew, especially to me. So I continued spending hours on end in the sun without any sun protection. As a young teenager I felt it was ‘cool’ to have ‘beetroot red’ skin and always hoped it would develop into a nice tan.

During my final years of primary school I began to become familiar with the rule ‘NO HAT, NO PLAY’ and the sun protection campaign ‘SLIP, SLOP, SLAP’ and began to increase my level of sun protection by using sunscreen regularly for sports and wearing a swim shirt at the beach or pool.

The term melanoma only became known to me in high school, when television advertisements expressed the damage the sun could cause and how important it is to cover up. They also demonstrated how easily a melanoma can begin to grow. With this, I went and got a skin check and photos of all off my moles were taken.

During my final year of high school, 2008, I began to notice a change in a mole on my face but thought nothing of it because at this time I was still under the impression that this kind of thing would never happen to me. After my year 12 graduation and during the New Year, I and my family began to become more worried about the changing mole on my right cheek, so I went for another skin check (approximately 2 years after my first one).

After comparison of the photos taken of the mole it was noticed that there was significant difference. Still unsure of my case, my doctor proceeded to tell me what was going to happen next. He said that I would have to get my mole removed rather than have a portion removed for biopsy, this was because with a biopsy the chance of taking the exact place where the melanoma could be was very slim.

My first lot of surgery to remove the mole for testing was done on Wednesday 14th January 2009 and 2 days later I received a phone call from my doctor saying the results had come in and I was to see him immediately. My mum and I went in as soon as we received the phone call and waited to see the doctor, hoping for the best. We were called into his consultation room and sat as he said, “Your mole is a stage 2 malignant melanoma.” As the realisation hit me that I actually had this thing called a melanoma; I acyually had skin cancer. I sat there stunned, emotional and confused as the doctor continued telling me and my mum that I will have to undergo further surgery to remove skin around the melanoma to ensure that there was no cancerous cell still in the tissue.

On the 22nd of January 2009 I underwent my second lot of surgery, however, this time a lot more was to be taken out. This section was approximately 9cm long and 2-3cm wide, which is a very large amount in comparison to the size of anyone’s cheek. After my surgery I had approximately 60 stiches internal and external and one very large scar on the side of my face.

As a 17 year old, it was important to me to look good and have high self confidence. This was hard for me to do as I was to start university 2 months later and knew I would have a fairly large ‘imperfection’ on the side of my face. With this said however, I was surrounded by much support and began to changed my way of thinking, I began to think how lucky I was that the melanoma was out and that it was found at an early stage.

For the first month of having my melanoma removed I had to tape the whole right side of my face and by the time I went to uni only had to tape over my scar, this was so that it wouldn’t stretch, which I am now very grateful for.

After my experience my mum and I joined a support group for melanoma patients, Melanoma Patients Australia (MPA), which we attend a meeting on the fourth Thursday of every month. This support group has given me the opportunity to meet and support others that have had the same cancer, some even worse than me. It has also given me the opportunity to use my story to teach others about melanoma, prevention methods like being sunsmart and that you don’t have to be ‘old’ to get something like this.

Almost 2 years after the removal of my melanoma, I have had to go back to the doctors and had other moles removed, another off my face, however all were good news. I also have to go back every 3-4months to get skin checks. Now when I look in the mirror I see 2 faint lines down the side of my face but it just reminds me of how lucky I am that it was found so early and that it wasn’t any worse. A lot of people that both know and don’t know my story cannot believe how good my scar looks.

Now that I have had a melanoma I always use sun protection and SLIP, SLOP, SLAP but sometimes I wish that if I only thought that it could happen to me I would have been more vigilant when I was out in the sun. I only wish someone had told me there story to give me an insight so I wouldn’t have to tell mine.

This summer be sure to wear a shirt and hat, apply sunscreen every 1-2hours when in the sun and minimise your time outdoors between the hours of 10am and 2pm.

It happened to me at 17 years of age, so it can happen to YOU and ANYONE!!