Hello 147

I'm sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis of melanoma. It's understandable that you may be feeling overwhelmed by this news and worried about what the future now holds. 

We do have some information about melanoma on our website that you may find helpful but I'm also going to tag one of our other forum members AngieT in my reply. Angie is a stage 3 melanoma patient who has been living with this diagnosis for well over a decade. Hopefully, Angie will be able to offer you some reassurance. 

If you want to talk with one of our nurses at any point you're welcome to call them on 0808 800 4040, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays). I know they will be happy to listen and offer any advice and support they can. 

Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for your MRI and the results will bring some reassurance. Do keep in touch 147 and let us know how you get on. 

Best wishes, 
Jenn
Cancer Chat moderator 

Give yourself time, but tell your kids as soon as possible.

If you don’t, they may worry about why you didn’t trust them with the news earlier. Human beings are strange creatures, whatever we do will often be wrong!

Thank you Jenn for your mention.

Hi 147,

It's a huge shock when you are diagnosed with cancer & it takes a while for the diagnosis to sink in. The treatment you receive will depend on the Stage you are diagnosed & the result of your MRI. Have you yet had a Wide Local Excision and a Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (if applicable - offered to those whose melanoma was 1mm or more in depth)? The results of all these procedures will go towards deciding on your treatment plan so you won't yet know what is in store in the immediate future. It's a difficult time at the moment as you feel 'in limbo' but once you know what treatment is planned you will feel more in control.

Of course, only you know if now is the right time to tell your adult children. Some patients prefer to wait until they have all the results & know what treatment plan has been decided on whilst others like to tell their family from the start so that they have the family support they feel they may need. Personally, I told my close family as soon as I was diagnosed Stage 1b at age 39. This turned out to the right thing to do because it spurred on my brother and his children to see my dermatologist for suspicious moles & our dermatologist then included us all in her research for familial melanoma. When I was diagnosed Stage 3 13 years later, it helped knowing that all my family understood melanoma by then & were a great support to me. As 20% of melanoma cases are caused by genetics and 80% by UV damage, it's always helpful for a patient's family to be informed and kept up to date because they will then know to keep an eye on their own skin & be more careful with sun protection. All my extended family now take care in the sun & know what to look out for on their skin.

I've sent you a friend request - if you accept it you can contact me by private message at any time. Meanwhile, good luck & I hope all goes well with your treatment,

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)

Dear Davek, 

Have taken your advice, and thank you it turned out to be the best thing. As you said we humans are strange creatures and you just never know how things will turn out. Thank you once again.

147 Deborah