So a friend of my Mom’s daughter was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic melanoma skin cancer that spread to her body, organs and bones. She has created a website with information on skin protection that followed a walk that her and her father embarked on this month, May 1-5. The site is called 555walk.com, five days, fifth month, celebrating five years of being cancer free. It was a five-day walk from Napa Valley to San Francisco, and it is a fundraising and awareness walk that will end at the California Pacific Medical Center where Dr. David Minor, Kari’s treating oncologist for the last five years is. The website had tons of links for what to look for with irregular moles and tips for staying out of the sun.
Apparently:
- 90% or more of melanoma is caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation either from the sun or tanning salons
- 50% of lifetime exposure to UV light occurs during childhood and adolescence, but sunburn at any age causes melanoma
- Melanoma is epidemic: rising faster than any other cancer and projected to affect one person in 50 by 2010, currently it affects 1 in 75. In 1935, the disease struck only one in 1500
- One person dies every hour from melanoma
- Melanoma is the most common cancer in women ages 25-29 and second only to breast cancer in women 30-34
- Melanoma costs over $740 million dollars annually
My sister has had malignant moles removed. I surf, worse yet, I am certainly guilty of lying out. I’m not a big tanning booth fan, but I have been once our twice in High School. After checking out this website for a good couple hours and checking all my moles, I am sure I have at least two irregular looking moles. A dermatologist just checked me but I am freaking out a little bit. I have had one benign mole and one benign tumor removed. God its like I am so fucking sick of cancer. Cancer this and that, I mean it really feels like everything gives you cancer. I feel like you really cant do much but live the healthiest you can and be prepared to battle at some point in your life. Its just I don’t want to have a family and kids and go through that shit. I just really don’t want cancer. That sounds so ridiculous, but growing up with it EVERYWHERE, I can’t help but feel like it’s inevitable and while I am so sick of being scared of cancer, of even hearing, talking about, or saying the word…I just don’t want it, I don’t want to have to go there too, and the worst part about it is there is not a damn thing I can do except wait and live as healthy as possible…whatever that means.
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