Retiree’s message: get a skin check

Retired Mid Canterbury farmer Robin Burton is just happy a melanoma was detected on his back during a free check by a specialist nurse touring in Melanoma New Zealand’s new van. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

A retired Mid Canterbury farmer found with a melanoma on his back by a specialist nurse during a South Island van tour recommends every farmer gets sinister spots checked out.

Melanoma New Zealand nurse educator Abbie Cameron had a busy day in Ashburton last June, screening 58 people for free spot checks and found eight suspicious lesions.

She then spotted a suspected melanoma when Robin Burton went in with his wife for a check. This was later confirmed after the 78-year-old saw his doctor.

Mr Burton said he had no inkling there was a melanoma as there was no itchiness and the 5mm spot on his back was difficult to see.

The Ashburton retiree was researching how to get a mole check one morning when he came across the melanoma van visiting Ashburton on the same day.

"The wife and I went along around about lunchtime and had a check and Abbie picked up this bit of a black spot on my back and said I should go to my doctor. So away we went and managed to get an appointment on the Monday morning for the doctor to see the lesion photographs and she excised the spot."

A Christchurch specialist will do a "fire break" around the incision in August to make sure any remaining melanoma cells are removed.

"The melanomas are silent and unless you physically get someone checking your bodies you don’t know they are. Men are probably worse as... they don’t stand around looking at a mirror and that’s probably a downfall of the male characteristic."

He said even people not spending all their lives outdoors should get a check.

"For most of my working life I’ve never been one to sunbathe and particularly for the last 40 years have always worn long shirts with overalls over the top, even in the summer, and have always worn a hat outside.

"It was the best accidental decision I ever made because it has protected my head and a large part of my face and neck."

Mr Burton has been involved in agriculture all his working life, working on farms since leaving school in 1963 until late 1975 when he became a research technician at Winchmore Research Station for 23 years.

After being made redundant he became a maintenance manager on a dairy farm fulltime and later part-time for another 26 years.

He said it was a relief to know he was in the medical system and specialists were doing their best to keep him healthy.

"It’s better to know and get it nipped in the bud and carry on because if you don’t and it’s too late all you are doing is penalising your family which has vested so much time and love in you and you may not be around to spend that time with them... I cannot emphasise enough to make the time and effort to go and get checked."

The positive identification followed Melanoma New Zealand launching its second mobile spot check van, to take free spot checks and melanoma education to more regions.

The van will be based in the South Island to reach the main centres and further afield to remote and rural areas where many people work outdoors and may be at higher risk of developing melanoma.

Ms Cameron said they could check up to three spots per person during the van tour.

PHOTO: MELANOMA NZ

"Often, people already have specific spots they’re concerned about and ask me to assess those. If not, I usually examine an area that’s either commonly exposed to the sun, such as the head and neck area, or harder for them to check themselves, such as the back."

She uses a dermatoscope — a hand-held device with magnification and a light — to see structures beneath the skin’s surface invisible to the naked eye.

This helped her examine moles, freckles, and other lesions more closely and identify features suggesting suggest skin cancer, she said.

Van visitors are educated on the most common types of cancer and to look out for changes in size, shape, or colour and are told to use sunscreen, wear protective clothing, and avoid excessive UV exposure.

Melanomas could appear in areas with little or no sun exposure, such as soles of the feet, under the nails, and between the fingers and toes, and even in skin folds and the genital area, she said.

The three main types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma which are all almost always curable if caught and treated early enough.

Melanoma New Zealand chief executive Andrea Newland said New Zealand had one of the worst rates of melanoma in the world, with more than 7000 diagnoses each year and about 300 deaths.