In 2020, I experienced agonising pain in my abdomen, resulting in a three-hour emergency operation to remove three tumours from my small intestine. The diagnosis was metastasised melanoma, which most likely started with the black spot removed eight years earlier. My oncologist then told me that the cancer had also spread to my lungs and said ‘If you don’t receive any treatment, we give you six months to live’. I don’t think I was fully able to absorb that news and six months later it’s still a struggle, but at least I’m still alive. Hopefully immunotherapy treatment will extend my life, because I’m not ready to die yet.

Advertising tells us that to be tanned is terrific, that sun damaged skin is more desirable than sun protected pale skin. It’s a dangerous message and one that I fell for when I was young, like so many others. Now I see through the bullshit messaging and accept my skin for what it is: sensitive, just like me. This scar (pictured), and the new one on my stomach, are a reminder to look after myself and accept my imperfections. We are all imperfect, and that’s what makes us who we are.