An East Belfast mum has urged others to look after their skin and flag any concerns after being diagnosed with the most serious form of skin cancer four times.
But two years later, Jennifer discovered “a tiny egg-shaped lump” during a routine breast check and was referred to the breast clinic at Belfast City Hospital. “After that, a secondary tumour was discovered in between my ribs in the chest wall. It was believed that's where all the problems in my right breast had been coming from and I ended up having to have a chest wall resection.”
”Today I still suffer from tiredness and the after effects of treatment so I have to manage that but at least I'm here to do that. I still have scans every three months which will now be six monthly as the doctors are pleased with how things are going.” “Five years later when I had a recurrence, I was able to continue to work with some adjustments as the new immunotherapy treatment wasn’t as harsh. The difference in both treatments was huge and I feel that it was the ongoing research that made this change happen.
Cancer Focus NI is calling for more investment in public health promotion aimed at prevention and early detection and its Chief Executive, Richard Spratt, said: “Within the current Public Health Agency funding, our charity receives less than 4p per head of population to be spent on prevention and early detection.
“The Department of Health must continue to prioritise skin cancer and develop an ambitious new strategy to tackle this preventable condition,” he added.