Twelve years

Last Friday marked twelve years since I was originally diagnosed with Malignant melanoma. If you don't know, MM is the deadliest skin cancer.

I've been very fortunate. The first MM wasn't the only one I had diagnosed. I had three more MM diagnosed in 1994. See I have whats called dysplastic nevi syndrome. Moles all over my body, mostly my trunk but I had them on my face too. I've had fifty moles removed from my body over the last ten years, at least half were dysplastic.

With all this, I've survived 12 years. I had no sign of disease at the moment. There's been more than a few scares, but I'm clean. I can't say that all the MM warriors, too many of whom are no longer with us. Diana Ashby, Laura Knutson, Michael Thode to name three. I met them all in person, or spoke to them on the phone. They're gone due to this terrible disease and we're poorer for it.

If you have money to donate to charity, think about the Melanoma Research Foundation. They help to finance research to beat this terrible disease. It was founded by Diana Ashby before her death in 1997.

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