New scorecard reveals one in four Australians never check for deadly skin cancers

Joy Davis noticed something on her neck and went on holiday for five weeks. What she didn’t realise was the delay was risking her life.

Joy Davis has survived melanoma – she's now supporting the launch of a national skin cancer tracker. Picture: Alison Wynd.

Little River grandmother Joy Davis dismissed the lump on her collarbone as “fatty tissue” and jetted off overseas for five weeks.

That holiday – and delay to treatment – risked the 76-year-old’s life when it turned out to be stage two melanoma hiding beneath her skin.

Her complacency mirrors a dangerous national trend exposed in Australia’s first-ever Skin Cancer Scorecard which reveals one in four Australians have never checked their own skin despite the disease claiming more than 2000 lives and costing the health system $2.47bn every year.

“I just thought it was fatty tissue, I never took much notice of it,” Ms Davis said.

But when her doctor took a biopsy to be safe, cancer was confirmed.

Thankfully a groundbreaking immunotherapy trial has left Ms Davis cancer-free.

“It’s a bit mind boggling – this mass was there and now where’s it gone?” she said.

“It’s 2.5 years since it was found, I reckon that’s a damn bonus!”

But Ms Davis’s survival story comes with an urgent warning that could save lives.

“So many people think a melanoma is a brown spot, or a lump … people don’t realise that the worst melanomas are the ones under your skin that you never see.”

Joy Davis has survived melanoma – she's now supporting the launch of a national skin cancer scorecard. Picture: Alison Wynd.

The National Skin Cancer Scorecard – a new tracking tool measuring progress across 16 areas including prevention, early detection and treatment – has been launched by the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Advocacy Network (MSCAN) and the Australasian College of Dermatologists.

It found 58 per cent of Australians delay seeing their GP about suspicious spots, while nearly one in three incorrectly believe only melanomas can be fatal.

Even more alarming, eight in ten Australians don’t know what keratinocyte cancers are, despite these non-melanoma skin cancers killing more than 700 people yearly and costing $1.87bn to treat.

Now Ms Davis is focused on protecting the next generation, particularly her two 18-year-old granddaughters.

“I’m on their back all the time, but it’s that age where all they want to do is look beautiful and think their make-up is their protection,” she said.

“In Australia it’s so imperative that everyone should put on sunscreen before they go out.”

She admits her generation did it wrong.

“We were putting baby oil and olive oil on our skin to burn. We’ve got the worst UV rays in the world and we don’t seem to take that much notice of it.”

With no family history of skin cancer, Ms Davis believes her fate was sealed decades ago. “It’s too late to stop it for me, it started when I was ten years old and reinforced year after year, out in the UV rays.”

Her message is clear: “You have to keep bringing it to the attention of people. Anything that can bring melanoma to light is a good thing.”

The scorecard found minimal progress in six key areas including sun protection in secondary schools and equitable access to care for regional Australians, who face higher skin cancer rates than city dwellers.

The next scorecard will be produced in 2030 to monitor the progress made toward reducing melanoma and skin cancer.