May is Melanoma Awareness Month and we want to encourage more people to get into a habit and do regular monthly skin self-examinations.

Meet Adele, an inspirational young woman, loving wife, mummy to two beautiful girls, and a stage 3 melanoma patient.  In this short video, Adele stresses the importance of skin self-examinations during self-isolation.

Even though many of us are separated right now due to COVID-19, we can still come together to help raise awareness and reduce incidence rates of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer.

THE MELANOMA IN ME

How did this happen?

You will be ok, they will just cut it out

was the general response when this all came about

It's silent aggression had invaded my space

now excision and dissections had to take place

Just cutting it out was never enough

treatment awaits, this year will be tough

What will this entail? lots of questions to ask

I'm not ready for this journey and it what will it unmask

Why is this happening, why does it have to be me?

I bought it upon myself, it's plain to see

pale with freckles I wish to be tanned

on tanning beds I would lay with a task in hand

but my skin would burn, blister and red

years later I am left with a disease that has spread

Looking back I wonder if I ever really knew the true

dangers of tanning beds and what they could do

Despite the warnings people continue to use

A tan or your life, which would you choose?

So moving forward I no longer wish to be tanned,

instead my wish is for these tanning beds to be

banned.

As written by Adele Hughes

Follow Adele's story using the link to her blog

 The Melanoma In Me