It was in November 2018 that the bad news came for Ryan Glossop. After visiting a dermatologist due to the appearance of a ‘brown spot’ on the back of his neck, this Australian man was diagnosed with nevus spilus, a skin condition that in his case turned into melanoma.
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As reported by Metro, it was then that a long battle began for Ryan, which was documented on social media by his wife, Fallon Glossop. She traced his battle with the disease through a Facebook post showing the terrible consequences of his skin cancer.
A 40cm long hole in the neck and back
Over the course of a year, Ryan underwent no less than 40 biopsies, a generally very intrusive examination, and four surgeries. His wife explained in her Facebook post, dated 3 October 2019.
S K I N C A N C E R // WARNING ⚠️ confronting images* ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This subject is quite raw for me as my husband, Ryan...
Posted by A little beauty on Thursday, October 3, 2019
In May 2019, a large part of the skin on his neck and back had to be removed. In his fourth surgery, Ryan underwent a skin graft, removing skin from both legs to cover the section of his neck and back
Despite this reconstructive surgery, the 40-year-old, from Perth (southwestern Australia), is now left with a hole 40 cm long and 8 cm wide starting from his neck and spreading between his shoulder blades. But the important thing is that Ryan has beat cancer and is out of danger. He has been able to resume his life with Fallon.
Melanoma, responsible for 10% of skin cancers
According to DailyMail, Ryan said:
In the last few years things started to change, I had more spots as well as freckles, but it wasn't until I started working in the mining industry that the concept of skin checks became more prevalent around me
As for his skin graft, he confided that he didn't hesitate for very long, even though he knew the after-effects would be very visible:
It was scary at first, but once they said, 'If we can do this skin graft, we think you'll be OK', the hardest part was that I had quite significant scars.
In his post, his wife pointed out that melanoma accounts for about 10% of skin cancers. Most of the time, in 8 out of 10 cases, it appears spontaneously on healthy skin, but in the remaining 20%, it can also appear on an old mole.
If detected early, the prognosis for recovery is very good but is greatly reduced if the melanoma is detected late. It usually develops as a result of excessive exposure to UV radiation from the sun or UV lamps. It is therefore recommended to be (very) proactive in checking your moles and to opt for outdoor sun protection.
This article is translated from Gentside FR.
Read more:
⋙ The type of mole on your body could be an early sign of skin cancer
⋙ Breast cancer: Having moles on your skin can increase risk of cancer, studies show
⋙ Skin cancer: What will cause the global melanoma rate to rise by 50% and who is most at risk?
