Lisa Pace found out she had skin cancer when she was 23 years old, shortly after she got her first basketball coaching job.
In a recent blog post for Coolibar, the 42-year-old massage therapist based in Tennessee said before her diagnosis, she made an appointment with a dermatologist to make sure her overall health was in-check before starting her new gig.
“They did a skin check and found a couple places, small light brown spots, that they wanted to biopsy. They did the biopsies and told me they would call and let me know the results. I figured since I had fair skin, red hair and freckles, this was probably common. I didn’t know. I think at my young age, I was trying to rationalize and justify why I had skin cancer. Later on, I found out anyone can get skin cancer,” she wrote.
Photo courtesy of Lisa Pace
“When I spoke to them, they said my biopsies came back suspicious, that they were skin cancer, possibly melanoma, and that I needed to come in and let them take more out.”
READ MORE: Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer — here are the warning signs
Pace had gone to see a specialist for a second opinion and eventually had spots removed on her right upper thigh and lower calf.
“I had stitches, bandages, bleeding, bruising, swelling, and I had crutches,” she continued. “I knew I would have these crutches for a day or so but as a former athlete, those things had to go. I didn’t have time to be ‘injured.’ But the good thing was, they said they got it all. This meant no more skin cancer, so I thought.”
But it didn’t stop. Pace had noticed spots on other parts of her body, including her cheeks, arms and the rest of her body, and today, she has gone through a total of 86 skin-cancer surgeries, not knowing when it will stop.
Photo courtesy of Lisa Pace
Pace adds her skin cancers have been basal cell, squamous cell and melanoma.
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex or race. May is also Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and experts say Canadians are still not properly applying (and re-applying) sunscreen on a daily basis.
“What they don’t realize is that they are getting exposure to and from the subway, through their car windows and by their desk window in the office. If there is enough light to see your hand in front of your face, there is enough sun to use SPF,” dermatologist Dr. Julia Caroll told Global News earlier this month.
READ MORE: Most skin cancers stem from new moles, not existing ones, study warns
There are more than 80,000 cases of skin cancer in Canada each year and about 7,300 Canadians were newly diagnosed with melanoma last year. It is also one of the most common types of skin cancer for people between ages 15 and 29.
Pace says when she was younger, she would often use tanning beds.
“Tanning beds were popular. I had tanned a lot in college,” she wrote in her blog. “As I got older, I didn’t go as much. However, the damage had been done and those times I was still tanning was just adding to my future surgeries. I had no idea that the tanning bed was causing so much damage to my skin.”
Photo courtesy of Lisa Pace
She said she never saw any TV commercial warnings about tanning-bed use and skin cancer, and there were no social media platforms at that time talking about the consequences.
“When I was young and tanning, I didn’t wake up with skin cancer the next day. It took a few years. But then one day, I did wake up with skin cancer, and that has continued to happen for over 20 years,” she tells Global News.
Raising awareness
And although the importance of sun safety, especially around checking moles, wearing sunscreen and the dangers of excess tanning-bed use has dramatically changed since Pace’s diagnosis, she says people should use resources online and offline to find out how to protect themselves.
“I can’t go back and change the choices I made, I have to live with those, but I hope people pay attention and make healthy choices today that could save their life.”
Carroll told Global News in May there is the standard ABCDE rule to help people figure out if their moles are cancerous or not.
READ MORE: How one viral Facebook post increased skin cancer awareness
A: Asymmetry: One side of a mole doesn’t match the other
B: Borders: A spot with wavy edges or pockets that “bleed” off into surrounding skin
C: Colour: The colour varies throughout the mole or a mole that’s darker than other moles
D: Diameter: Larger than 6 mm (about the size of a pencil eraser)
E: Evolving: If the spot is getting bigger, or changing in appearance over time
And although she doesn’t know when her surgeries will stop, she confidently believes she will win this battle.
“As a former college athlete and a college basketball coach, I don’t have quit in me. I know every morning, I am blessed to wake up, I have a decision to be positive or negative. And I choose to be positive.”
arti.patel@globalnews.ca