A mom-of-three who was diagnosed with stage four cancer has spoken out about how the habits she'd had in her younger years impacted her health later in life.
Claire Turner initially thought she'd just pulled a muscle in her right shoulder when she first noticed pain and swelling, but it wasn't until she want to the doctor three months later that she realized the truth.
Her ordeal began in October 2023, when Claire, her husband and her three kids were going for a weekend away. Claire turned to pass her daughter a pastry in the car, and soon noticed something wasn't right.
Pain and swelling in her shoulder
She recalled: "It was pretty painful carrying a bag and that night it was quite painful to lean back on it."
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The mom, from Oxfordshire in the UK, continued with the trip and went to the hospital when she got back, when doctors told her it appeared to be a torn ligament. But a few weeks later, things still hadn't returned to normal as Claire noticed her shoulder looked slightly swollen.
After speaking with the doctor Claire was told that shoulder injuries can 'take a while to heal', but she was referred to an orthopaedic consultant and underwent on MRI scan.
She faced a tough wait over Christmas 2023, finding herself in 'Google rabbit holes' as she tried to figure out what could be wrong, and on January 26 she got her diagnosis: stage four cutaneous malignant melanoma.
A devastating stage four cutaneous malignant melanoma diagnosis
"I came away knowing it was stage four. The doctor said I had a 50/50 chance of coming out of the other side of this," she said.
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"The nurse said 'it could be that there was something on the skin and your body healed it but the cancer cells got so deep that they stayed in your body and travelled round for months or even years and created tumours'."
In June, Claire learned the cancer had spread to five sections of her liver, both thighs, her glute, lymph nodes, around her shoulder and on either side of her clavicle.
Claire received three rounds of immunotherapy to shrink her tumours, and in August a scan thankfully revealed that lots of them had gone.
"My nurse said to me that 10 years ago with my diagnosis I would be given six to seven months to live. That was quite shocking," she said. "Immunotherapy has massively changed that, I've just passed a year of the initial shoulder injury."
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Looking back on an 'avoidable' habit
Claire is now reflecting back on her life and diagnosis, and urging people to be conscious of what is happening to their skin and bodies.
"It's not just waiting for something to pop up on your skin," she said. "It's about knowing the damage the UV rays do to your skin."
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When she was in her 20s, Claire recalled going on sun beds to help herself get a tan.
"I still sit in the sun but I'll sit in the shade. I'll wear a hat or I won't have bare shoulders, it's just about knowing," she continued. "It's about not going on the sun beds and not getting burned. Sun damage has caused my cancer, it could have been avoided.
"I did use sun beds and I've been burned in the sun striving for a tan, a tan doesn't last. Fake tan doesn't last and real tan doesn't last but which one's safer? I've got lots of moles on the skin and they've been checked. It's about protection and taking care of your skin before anything appears."
Now, Claire feels 'positive' about where she's at in her journey and is grateful for the support she's received along the way.
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If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.
Emily Brown