When Gillian Ranaldi’s mum passed away from melanoma in 2018, she never could have imagined she’d recieve the same diagnosis just three years later.
After watching her mum’s journey with the illness, Gillian, from Perthshire, was terrified of what her own experience with melanoma would look like.
Here, Gillian tells The Courier:
- About her mum’s shock diagnosis at 63
- How noticing a small mark on her leg led to her own devastating diagnosis
- Of the impact on her mental health and how she stays positive
Gillian’s mum, Doreen, was just 66 years old when she passed away from melanoma – a form of skin cancer that begins in the cells that control the pigment in your skin.
Gillian, 39, remembers: “My mum had this funny looking mole. She met a paramedic who told her she’d better get it checked.
“She brushed it off but I was really worried and told her she should do something about it.”
Tragically, Doreen was diagnosed with melanoma in 2016.
Gillian continues: “She got the shock of her life when she heard the result.
“She started receiving radiotherapy, but they found out later that by that point, the cancer had already spread.”
Doreen died in 2018. She’d been a keen hillwalker and had only been sunburnt five or six times in her life, which is why it all came as such a shock to Gillian.
‘It didn’t even look like a mole’
Just two years after her mum’s death, Gillian’s world was again turned upside down when she found an unusual mark on her own skin.
“I used to work in Malaysia and in 2020, my little boy, MJ, and I were out there on holiday.
“I kept looking at my leg because there was a mark on it. It didn’t even look like a mole, it looked like a tiny pale pink freckle on my knee.
“When I went to the doctor, I was so nervous because it felt like I was going on the exact same journey as my mum.
“I was so stressed about it, I went to the appointment on the wrong day.
“I was told I could see the nurse specialist or come back and see the doctor, but at that point I didn’t really care. I’d have seen the cleaner I was so desperate.”
While medics at first didn’t think the mark was worrying, it was removed to relieve Gillian’s anxiety.
‘It makes you realise how fragile life is’
But when a letter arrived asking her to come back in to discuss things, she knew something was wrong.
Unable to wait for her consultation appointment, she was told over the phone she had melanoma.
Gillian admits: “I’m such a positive person. Every negative thing that’s happened in my life, I’ve always thought to myself, it will be OK if I can turn it into a positive.
“With mum’s cancer, it took me a while to think of something positive to come out of it. I suppose, it makes you realise how fragile life is.
“So, for me to then receive the same diagnosis, it felt like a big slap in the face because I felt like I’d been through enough.”
‘Am I going to die?’
Gillian’s melanoma was caught at an early stage and has been removed. She is monitored every three months, to make sure it doesn’t come back or spread.
But the whole ordeal has had a significant impact on her mental health and she’s been diagnosed with PTSD.
“December last year was one of my darkest times.
“I got a black marker pen, circled every single thing I wanted removed on my skin and went to hospital saying I wanted it all taken off.
“I stripped all my wallpaper in my living room because I couldn’t take my skin off, but I could take my wallpaper off.
“Mentally it really affected me. My brain was doing overtime thinking ‘Am I going to die like my mum did?’”
‘Be pushy!’
It has been a challenging journey for Gillian. But she’s remaining positive by trying to spread the word and help others avoid what she’s gone through.
She says: “Using just one sun bed increases your chance of melanoma by 20%.
“Before it happened to my mum and me, I thought skin cancer was a thing that happened to sun worshippers. I never ever imagined my mum would die of it.
“I’ll always worry it’s going to reoccur, but I’m still living my life. I’m not sitting worrying about it anymore. I’ll do anything to survive for MJ.
“If you have a mole or another symptom of melanoma, please get it checked and be pushy. You have to take responsibility for your own health, because no one else will.
“I’ll always share our story because the more people know about skin cancer, I feel I can maybe save someone else’s life.”
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