You know when something happens and you think, “If only I had known I would have {insert change here}.” Well, over the last few years I have thought about that a lot. I have thought about how we used to pester my mom to get her moles checked out but we never really thought too much about it. We didn’t push the subject at all despite knowing that her moles made her at risk for skin cancer. You know why? Because we didn’t know that skin cancer could kill. I mean, I knew that eventually any cancer will kill you but I thought that skin cancer was more a pesky problem that would mean a day trip to the doctor. I had no idea that there were different kinds of skin cancer and that some were much more serious than others.
Then my mom got melanoma and my world turned upside down. I learned the hard way that one can die of skin cancer. I learned that melanoma, especially the kind my mom had – nodular melanoma – was one of the most aggressive forms of cancer and the deadliest form of skin cancer. I also learned that melanoma does not discriminate. It is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in young people. And by this I mean young – people in their 20s and 30s.
So, I made it a personal mission to inform. To tell people what I wish I had known.
May is Melanoma Awareness month so please, take this opportunity to learn so that one day you won’t have to say, “If I had only known”.
