A man has revealed how he has spent the last 17 years fighting skin cancer - and getting his dodgy looking mole checked sooner could have prevented him from more than a decade of excruciating pain and countless invasive surgeries.
If Jason Sprott, 48, could he would go back to 2003 - before he ever got diagnosed with skin cancer - and tell his younger self to get the mole on the back of his neck checked. I was being ignorant and didn t take it seriously enough, if I could go back I would get it taken out as soon as I saw a change, he told Daily Mail Australia.
Revolutionary melanoma treatment offers new lease on life
It s being hailed as the biggest advancement in melanoma treatment in a decade and it s already saving lives.
Volunteer firefighter Ryan Channells was battling the Black Summer bushfires in December 2019 when he was diagnosed with stage three melanoma.
Doctors told the father-of-two he wouldn t live to see the next Christmas.
Firefighter Ryan Channells was diagnosed with melanoma and told he didn t have long to live.(9News)
READ MORE:
The 43-year-old found out he was eligible for a new clinical trial at the Melanoma Institute.
Typically, patients like Ryan have surgery to remove the tumours first and are then treated with cancer-fighting drugs such as immunotherapy.