The barely there 'freckle' on 'healthy' 26 year-old's chest that was killer skin cancer

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

A 26 year-old woman has urged others to beware of the dangers of innocent-looking blemishes, after a 'single dot' on her chest turned out to be deadly melanoma skin cancer.
Leah Alexis Adams, originally from Ohio, spent countless hours tanning in the summer and often skipped sunscreen, but thought the disease could 'never touch' her.
Yet what she believed to be a freckle turned out to be one of the fastest-spreading cancers, resulting in the removal of large chunks of her chest and armpit.
In a recent video posted on her Instagram page, she shared the unsuspecting mole with her 11,000 followers.
'Turns out, melanoma doesn't care how good you think you look—it just shows up and tries to wreck your life,' she said in another clip.
'So yeah…learn from my mistakes, not your biopsy results.'
Around 17,500 new melanoma skin cancer cases are diagnosed in the UK every year, with some 2,300 are killed by the disease.
In the US, it is estimated that new diagnoses reach over 100,000 a year.
It wasn't until Ms Adams' father Gary was diagnosed with early stage melanoma in 2019, that she decided to undergo a random mole check with a dermatologist.
The doctor flagged the unsuspecting-looking mole on her chest and removed it for testing.
'The doctors stand close to you, scanning you from head to toe, asking questions about your history of sun exposure, family skin cancer history, etc,' she previously told a cancer support community.
'The questions about tanning beds and sunscreen came, and I told them exactly what they didn't want to hear.
'I didn't wear sunscreen, I used tanning beds often, my dad and my grandfather had skin cancer.'
The results of a biopsy revealed the devastating truth—Ms Adams had melanoma that was bordering on stage 1B.
Unlike stage 1A, this means the lesion is ulcerated, leaving an open wound. Experts say melanoma at this stage are far more likely to spread to other areas of the body.
Weeks later she underwent surgery to remove the growth, as well as healthy tissue beside her breasts and several glands under her armpit, to check for spread.
'I was not fully prepared for the extensive amount of time this surgery would take,' she said.
'My surgery was an all-day process with prep, surgery, and recovery. I was put under full anesthesia with stitches in my chest and glue stitches under my arm. After the surgery, I was in a lot of pain.'
Two weeks later she got the good news that doctors hadn't found cancer in her lymph nodes, meaning it hadn't spread to other organs.
She now has to undergo skin checks every three to four months and urged others to undergo the vital test at least once a year.
While this means any sign of spread will be caught early, it means moles are 'constantly' being cut out of her.
'I'm barely thirty and have scars all over my body,' she said.
Reflecting on her diagnosis she said: 'Did I give myself cancer from not protecting my skin and not taking care of my health enough?
'If I didn't do that skin check, that mole could have grown into something life-threatening. I might not be here today.'
Ms Adams' tale comes as cases of melanoma skin have been subject to an alarming rise in the UK.
Data released last year revealed diagnoses have increased by almost a third in a decade.
Older age groups have had the highest rises in sun-linked skin cancer rates, with a 57 per cent increase in those over the age of 80 in the decade to 2019.
The main warning sign of melanoma skin cancer is a new mole or a change in an existing mole anywhere on your body.
Most common areas are often those exposed to the sun, but in rarer cases it can affect the eyes, soles of the feet, and palms of hands or genitals.
The NHS says to look out for moles with an uneven shape or edges, a mix of colours, large in size and that change over time.