Hello supporters!

For those of you that don't know, I'm a Melanoma Clark Level 4.  I was diagnosed on 21 December 2011 .. Two days after my mole was biopsied for what we thought was pre-cancer, 8 days after my uni graduation and 10 days before I was due to leave my home Tas for good.  Suddenly instead of packing, Christmas and trying to find a place to rent I was sitting with my surgeon, my Mum and Dad trying to decide which part of my body I was comfortable grafting to my left shin because they weren't confident they could close my leg up after the excision (I was lucky we got those stitches in and closed - I call it my shark bite - thanks so much for that one Kane).  Since that day I've had 13 skin checks and 1 PET scan (thankfully not progressed enough to need Chemo) and on 1 September this year my PET was clear and they've declared that the cancer hasn't returned and after one final skin check, on 19 December this year I will be officially cancer free.

In celebration of my journey I wanted to do something more, so this year I'm running the 30km in the Gold Coast 50 to raise money for the Melanoma Institute of Australia for those that aren't as blessed as I have been and need our help and most importantly to raise awareness of this horrible disease.  

Melanoma is not just a skin spot you get cut out and you'll be right (for me and those far worse off than me that is far from the truth).  Melanoma has the highest occurrence in Australia and New Zealand, on average 30 Australians will be diagnosed each day, Melanoma kills more young Australians (20-34) than any other single cancer and one person will die from Melanoma every 6 hours in Australia.  Yet many still refer to it as getting a sun spot.  So please join me in raising awareness and making a donation to the Melanoma Institute of Australia. Even more importantly pick up the phone and book in and get your skin checked it may save your life.  And remember slip slop slap.

Kelsey xx.

http://www.melanoma.org.au/understanding-melanoma/melanoma-facts-and-statistics/