Toronto, ON

Just before the summer of 2015, I noticed a dark mole on my left calf. At first, I thought that something was stuck to my leg and tried to remove it in the shower. However, I realized it was actually a mole. I was almost certain that it was not there before.

While I was on summer vacation with my family, the mole made an appearance once again. My mom looked at my calf and said “Hey, you have a piece of chocolate stuck to your leg!” When I told her that it was a mole, she confirmed that she’s never seen it before and I need to check on it.

Three months after discovering the mole, I went to my doctor. He told me that the mole didn’t look good and we needed to cut it off and send it for analysis. Three weeks later I got my results from the lab and saw the diagnosis: “melanoma of SSM type, level 3, Breslow 0.36mm,” and then at the end the phrase “additional surgery is strongly recommended”.

I remember feeling scared and alone. I couldn’t understand what exactly the diagnosis meant and I didn’t know what to do next.

For several weeks my family and I were on a hunt for answers, trying to find what ‘strongly recommended’ really means, how urgent the problem is, and the main question ‘how serious it is’. During all that time I had a pressing thought in my head: “I have cancer cells in my leg and they might spread!”

I eventually got an appointment at Hospital Saint-Louis in Paris, France (where I lived at the time) which is recognized for being a top hospital to deal with melanomas. The amazing Dr. Madjlessi answered all of my questions, reassuring me that my case is one of the easiest as I caught it early enough. I got my surgery the next day to remove the remaining cancer tissue from my calf. Results of the surgery came in as expected – no metastases, and clean lymph glands.

Now I’m in the risk group. Another melanoma can appear and most likely will be bigger and faster growing than the first one. I need to check up with my dermatologist every 6 months and avoid long sun exposure.

What I have taken out of this experience is that it is important to be aware of what is going on in my body. Melanoma can be treated much more easily if it’s noticed in time.

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Montreal, QC

I am 52 years old and I have had a lot of luck; having not met the right people at the right time, I would not be alive to tell you my story.

I am proud to say that I have survived two recurrences of malignant melanoma since my initial diagnosis at forty seven years old.

On December 22, 2011, the doctor called me at work. I had just been promoted to the position of director. The results of a beauty spot that had been removed from my leg came back as T1a melanoma. The doctor planned to make an extended incision for 1 cm and check the sentinel ganglion.

The pathology report came back negative for extended tissue and the sentinel ganglion; I felt very lucky. According to the surgeon, only 20% of T1a melanomas reoccur, so I was not concerned at all. I felt like this episode was an alert, a message to slow down and enjoy life. The kids were old enough now, and I was ready to make a few changes. I took three weeks off work to recover from surgery.

On the fifth day of our cruise to the Bahamas in October 2014, I felt a big nodule in my groin area of the same leg. I knew immediately what was happening.

The surgeon removed seventeen ganglions. Two of them were positive for melanoma, but one was over 3 cm and was extending over the capsula. I received one year of Interferon treatment, over one hundred and twenty extremely painful injections. I took nine months off work and worked under Interferon to be able to pay the bills and the extra for this expensive treatment.

In November 2015, we were very close to the end of Interferon treatment. A PET scan showed multiple lung metastasis. My life expectancy was less than a year. However, I had the chance of being approved to be a part of a trial for a new chemo available in Quebec from September 2015 onwards.

Currently, I have been receiving chemotherapy every second week since December 8, 2015, and will receive it for life with the help of Bristol-Myers. I have a miraculous happy ending: my scan from July 2016 shows a regression of all the lung metastasis.

Chemotherapy is demanding, the sides effects are painful, but I am alive! I am still unable to work but I am thinking of going back one day per week in the near future! I am living proof that, with the help of the latest treatments (Nivolumab/Opdivo in my case), living with Stage 4 melanoma is now possible.

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Kamloops, B.C.

In 2009, I had a mole removed from my back with a wide excision surgery. Though the mole was cancerous, it had been removed completely, so I stopped thinking about it.

I was out hiking in May 2015, when I began to feel surprisingly short of breath. I went in for an x-ray, and the doctor told me to go to the hospital immediately; my right lung had almost collapsed. The melanoma had moved into the pleura lining of my lung, causing fluid leakage. I spent ten days in the hospital, with a chest catheter draining my lung fluids regularly.

I then had a bronchial tube biopsy, the results of which came back as stage 4 metastatic melanoma. CT scans founds more tumours on my kidney, spine, and neck. I travelled to Kelowna to begin receiving the checkpoint inhibitor combination of Tafinlar and Mekinist. By September, I had begun to feel better; however, my body became immune to the drugs I was receiving, and my cancer came back.

I began seeing a Naturopath, who suggested I look into the immunotherapy combination of Nivolumab and Ipilimumab. When my cancer returned, I was admitted to the hospital in Kamloops, waiting for my Oncologist to decide between the immunotherapy Keytruda, or finding a clinical trial for Nivolumab and Ipilimumab. He found a trial in Edmonton, where I went, despite being very ill. During the first round of treatment, I was constantly dehydrated, despite draining three litres of fluid a day from my body. After the second round, I began to feel better. I spent six and a half weeks in the Cross Cancer Institute, taking pain relief medications and having fluid drained regularly from my lungs. After my fourth cycle of treatment, I was discharged from the hospital. While I still have nine treatments to go of Nivolumab, which I receive every second week, I am on track for a full immune response.

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