Irish Woman Beats Melanoma After Spotting a Freckle
- Skin cancer survivor Katie Maloney was 19 years old when she found out she had melanoma for the first time.
- Maloney remembered her doctor's warning when she beat the disease: If it were to recur, or come back, it would likely go straight to her groin area. Sure enough, seven years later, she found a lump in her groin and knowing what it was, sought care immediately.
- The two-time survivor is now advocating for skin cancer awareness, sharing her story, and urging others to learn more about skin cancer prevention.
DublinLive reports how she “first noticed something was wrong when she picked a freckle on the back of her leg, and it bled for a long time.”
Read MoreMaloney’s Cancer Journey
"It started as a freckle on my right calf at age 16," she told the Sunday Independent. "I picked at it and it bled, then I didn't do anything about it until I was 19. By then it had developed into a black, bumpy, itchy growth, about the size of a two-cent coin." The Killarney-born Irishwoman, who had just lost her father to bowel cancer, had the cancerous growth removed successfully, then took off to America to join an Irish touring music troupe. "I pushed down everything that happened to me, as well as my father's death, I didn't deal with any of it emotionally," she admitted. "I just ran away from all of it. I was young and I just couldn't deal with it, so I didn't."Seven years later, she found a lump in her groin, and thanks to her doctor, Maloney knew to go in immediately. Because of her diligence and excellent care, she thankfully beat the disease a second time.
“The message that I would like to get across is that it’s treatable if it’s got in time,” she says. “Time is everything. I nearly waved off both scares. I put one down to an ingrown hair, one down to teenage skin in my head but just go in if you think at all.”
She continues, “I would say as well look for your loved ones, even if you think you’re being a hypochondriac or it’s not necessary, if it’s niggling at you, go into your GP.”
Top 5 Ways to Protect Your Skin From Skin Cancer
Checking Your Skin for Melanoma
Catching skin cancer early can save a person's life, especially in the case of melanoma, which is typically much more aggressive.
Maloney is lucky that the larger mole on her leg did not spread by the time she got it checked out. Even a cute-looking freckle can be melanoma, therefore it's important to know how to identify potential skin cancer in between annual or bi-annual skin checks.
Dr. Cecilia Larocca, a dermatologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, recommends looking at your skin once a month for anything suspiciousand using the acronym ABCDE as a checklist:
- Asymmetrical moles: if you drew a line straight down the center of the mole, would the sides match?
- Borders: irregular, jagged, not smooth; can also stand for bleeding
- Colors: multiple distinct colors in the mole
- Diameter: larger than 6mm, about the size of a pencil head eraser
- Evolution: This may be the most important thing that changes over time, such as gaining color, losing color, pain, itching, hurting, changing shape, etc.
If you pick up on any of these changes to a mole or notice a new one with some suspicious qualities, that would definitely be something to bring up with a dermatologist as soon as possible. A changing mole does not necessarily mean you have melanoma, but a dermatologist will be able to determine if further testing, like a biopsy, is necessary.
Examining Your Skin for Melanoma: Remember ABCDE
Contributing: Marisa Sullivan
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