Jane's Skin Cancer Story
“A tan is not worth the risk. You always think skin cancer will never happen to you, but it can.”
Jane Murray, 46, from Perrystown in Dublin was on a run with her friend, Alan, in 2020 when he noticed a small mole on her arm. Alan, who is a nurse, told Jane she should get it checked out, but she was unconcerned about it. After several years of her friends and family encouraging her to get the mole checked, Jane went to her doctor last November.
“I got the mole checked out of spite because I wanted them all to stop asking me about it!” says Jane. “The doctor had a look at it and said she wasn’t too concerned but she’d take it off. So I went back two weeks later, she took it off, and then the following February they got in touch and said they needed me to come back in.
“I went back on the 12th of February, and the doctor said it had taken so long because there was a discrepancy about the staging of what they found, so it was sent to a lab in Europe and they confirmed it was a stage two melanoma, and I’d need to have surgery.
“It was awful, horrific. I didn’t think the doctor was talking to me when she said it. She was sat behind her computer, so I thought she was on the phone to someone else when she said it. Then she moved from behind the computer and looked right at me and I realised she was talking to me. It was completely shocking.”
After this, Jane was referred to a plastic surgeon who took two centimetres around and two centimetres down from where the mole had been, to check if the cancer had spread. Thankfully, Jane got the all clear last April. She now has to go to mole mapping appointments every three months for the next year, wear an SPF and stay out of the sun. This is a lifestyle change for Jane, as she loved sun holidays and getting a tan.
“I was a sunworshipper on holidays, and I used to use sunbeds when I was younger. I used sunbeds from 17 until I was 25 or 26, if I was going out or going to a wedding. But in the last 20 years, I haven’t used them.
“I always thought because I had sallow skin and was tanned that that meant I didn’t need high SPF or SPF at all. I also never wore SPF when I went running, because I didn’t like the feel of it when sweating, which is really when I should have been wearing it most.”
Jane is encouraging people to get any skin changes of concern checked out, after her doctor told her she could’ve had a much worse prognosis if she hadn’t gotten her mole seen to.
“I asked the surgeon what would’ve happened if I had left the mole, if the people around me hadn’t pushed me to get it checked out. He was writing something when I asked, but then he stopped and looked up at me and said I would’ve been in a lot of trouble, and that by the time I would’ve been symptomatic, I would’ve been at stage four and there wouldn’t be much that could be done for me.”
Jane’s scars from her arm surgery are now healing, and she’s getting back to normal life and has returned to work as a personal trainer.
“I can’t stop smiling,” she says. “I feel very lucky that there were people in my life who pushed me to get the mole checked out. Don’t feel stupid for getting something small checked – I put it off for so long, but I should’ve done it sooner. Protect your skin, wear your SPF, don’t use sunbeds, and get your moles checked.
“It was like I was floating on air when I was told the cancer was gone – it’s such a huge relief. It’s been a long two months, from getting my diagnosis, to having surgery, to being given the all clear.”
