SKIN CANCER CHECKUP TIME
THE DAY I SAVED MY SISTER’S LIFE.
Lifestyle
“IF IT ONLY HAPPENS ONCE A YEAR, IT’S A GOODYEAR!” IT’S A WELL-USED ADVERTISING SLOGAN FROM THE GOODYEAR CAR TYRE COMPANY BUT HAS THE BRUTAL TRUTH OF A LIFESAVING YEARLY HABIT. JUST LIKE YOUR YEARLY DENTIST CHECK-UP, THAT TRIP TO THE GP OR YEARLY OPTOMETRIST EYE TEST, GETTING YOUR SKIN CHECKED AFTER THE SUMMER IS A YEARLY EVENT THAT WE SHOULD ALL HAVE PENCILLED ON THE CALENDAR. HERE’S THE STORY OF HOW I INADVERTENTLY SAVED MY SISTER’S LIFE. I don’t know about you, but I had one of those amazing family doctors, Dr Michael Campbell. He had been my family’s doctor since birth. About three years ago, I was 43 at the time, he hung up his boots and retired to the golf course. I mean, how dare he, was my first thought. But to be fair in my eyes, he hadn’t aged a day in all the years. I honestly thought he was one of those guys, kind of like Yoda, never ages, will be going strong all my life.
Now this is the important bit, Dr Campbell was old school GP, not that I really knew that as he had always been my doctor. It was the norm now that I think about. If I went to see him for a common cold, he would burn off a wart, tend to a wound, check my ears, throat, and go over me with a blue light and burn off those crusty bits of skin on my hands. It was just what he did, patient maintenance I assumed. But that doesn’t happen anymore, the GP writes you a script for the flu and you’re on your way. So, the crusty skin bits kept building up on my hands. We won’t talk about the warts but that’s neither here nor there. One day at a marketing client visit to the Northern Beaches Skin Cancer Clinic, owner Ross said to me upon leaving, “You really should get those checked out.” I did the usual, yeah-yeah one day. I’m a little busy now. Megan, my sister, who was with me at the time, has many body moles. She said the same thing, you know the story, we’ve all done it. Six months, maybe even a year passed, and the skin on the hands were getting worse. So, I finally went and saw Dr Greg Cusick at the Northern Beaches Skin Cancer Clinic. Now this man is fascinating to listen to. His knowledge of skin and all the layers and ways the sun affects you, he made the visit amazingly interesting but mainly very informative in a simple easy language to understand.
If you need a skin check, this is the best place to go. I went for my first check-up last September and Dr Greg found three stage 1 melanomas on my body. He saved my life. Let him save yours.
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Did you know Bob Marley died of a skin cancer melanoma? The guy was a Caribbean native, the sun and his lifestyle were one. In the end, I left with such a relief of knowledge that I was okay, bar the 10 blisters on my hands from where the crusty spots were frozen off. But with a true sense of wow, that guy really knows his stuff and now, so do I.
WORDS: JOHN VICKERY On returning to the office, I told my sister of my experience and she said to me, “Oh did you, I really need to do that too, why didn’t you book me in?” So instead, she made her own appointment. Megan’s appointment went a little differently. Two moles looked a little fishy and to Megan and the family’s shock, the results came back positive for Stage I melanoma. Holy sandcastles we thought, this isn’t good. The story ends well with several more melanoma moles removed as they were caught in the first stages and dealt with so Megan is all okay. But, and here’s the kicker, Megan is healthy. She’s not a sunbather who hangs at the beach all summer. Would she have eventually gone and got her skin checked if I hadn’t gone to fix an issue that my old GP regularly took care off, without me even thinking about it? I think we all know the answer to this one and it’s a resounding, NO! If this had progressed past where they were at with the gravity of time, Megan, our family and her life could have been destroyed. Do yourself and your family a favour. If you live in Australia, go and get your skin checked once a year. Period! As the Surf Life Saving slogan for surf patrols states: “No Lives Lost!” It’s the goal of every summer. Give Northern Beaches Skin Cancer Clinic a call today and fix a yearly ‘life saving’ calendar event. •
