My Malignant Melanoma

I was diagnosed back in March 2006 with a nodular Malignant Melanoma, which went from stage 2 to stage 3 quite rapidly during treatment.

I have had a number of operations, including a sentinel node biopsy and a lymph clearance, and have been free of detectable disease since June 2006.

I had to work the system quite hard to get treatment approximating the NICE guidelines, and was upset by the lack of information given to me on my condition. I was further upset by NHS professionals suggesting to me that I was out of conventional alternatives, and that I should pursue worthless alternative techniques like the Gerson diet.

I have learned since then that the provision of no useful information is all too common for melanoma patients. I have been trying to do something about this on the Melanoma Blog for some time, but contact with Katie Taylor's mum and dad spurred me on to try to create a place on the web where solid information, and links to sources of help and support was available. This is it: www.mymalignantmelanoma.com

In researching this, it turns out that there are such resources already, but no-one I know with melanoma knows much about them.

There is a support helpline for melanoma patients and carers here.

There is a source of evidence based advice here.