Young mum who survived stage three melanoma is pregnant with second child

Sarah Rose was only 26 when she was diagnosed with stage three melanoma and she did not think she would see her young son grow up. Now, thanks to modern medicine, she survived — and is expecting her second child.

Sarah Rose is a picture of health, and pregnant with her second child. The Glenmore Park mum feels blessed, but she is a miracle of modern medicine.

Just over two years ago, Ms Rose was diagnosed with stage three melanoma.

“In 2018 I had a little mole on my back that bled through my pyjamas and the doctor said it was fine, but then it kept getting worse over two weeks and went to another doctor and they said that needs to get cut out straight away and a few weeks later I found out I had melanoma,” Ms Rose said.

“It was already thickness of 2.2mm. In December I had a wide excision done and they took out some lymph nodes and both came back positive for melanoma.”

Sarah Rose with her partner Chris Webb and son Jayden in late 2018 after being diagnosed with melanoma.

Ms Rose was just 26 years old and the mother of Jayden who was only one at the time.

“I was an emotional mess, I did not know how to handle myself, at the time my little boy was only one. It was heartbreaking, I was planning to go back to uni and finish my degree and this happened and I just couldn’t handle myself, you don’t see the positives at that point,” she said.

The first line of treatment was immunotherapy which she started in February 2019, but by May, the cancer was back.

Sarah Rose in 2018 during treatment for stage three melanoma.

Sarah Rose with her son Jayden when she was fighting melanoma.

“I kept having scans and in May it had come back under my left armpit. Then I had a full auxiliary clearance of half my lymph nodes on my left side and had to have physiotherapy to get my arm working again,” she said, adding she went to some very dark places in her mind.

“In December 2019 there were nodules on my armpit, my neck, my spleen, my ovaries and my left tibia.

“At this point I was an emotional mess thinking this treatment had not worked. It’s still hard to talk about. I 100 per cent felt like I was losing the battle and it was so hard because I had my little one. Jayden was only two. It was horrible.”

Sarah Rose, pictured with her son Jayden, is now expecting her second child.

Ms Rose steeled herself for the worst news at the next scan in January.

“They found the nodules had cleared. That treatment just took time and I stayed on it and somehow it worked,” Ms Rose said.

“That was my first clear scan since being diagnosed in 2018, I can’t even explain the feeling, and it was just the best feeling in the world, I was very happy.”

Ms Rose went back to university and finished her nursing degree and is now pregnant with her next child with partner Chris.

“I finished my nursing degree and now working as a registered nurse, so life is pretty good at the moment,” she said.

“Get your skin checked. I tell everyone to go for regular skin checks and my dad actually found a mole on his back that came back melanoma stage one.”

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Melanoma man struck with deadly skin cancer again

He had hoped his melanoma days were behind him, but Jay Allen, who has campaigned to raise awareness of the deadly cancer, has just had another one cut out. And he wants to get across the message that even during lockdown, don’t miss your skin checks.

“It’s not good news, it has been a tough year but so glad I’m still getting checked, especially during these Covid lockdown times.

Jay Allen has been raising awareness about melanoma for years. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Jay Allen had another melanoma cut out off his back. Picture: Supplied

“It may just encourage one person to get a skin check and save their life,” he said.

In 2008, at the age of 32, Mr Allen was diagnosed with stage three melanoma which had spread to his lymph nodes. He blamed his regular use of sunbeds and campaigned to get them banned.

He now has regular three monthly skin checks.

“I go for regular skin checks and the doctor found a melanoma in situ, the earliest melanoma you can get and I’m lucky I found it, it could have turned into a deeper melanoma and got into my blood or lymphatic system,” the 46-year-old said.

“I had the wider margin cut out on Monday and hopefully it comes back that it hasn’t spread.”

“My message is get a skin check, ask your family who has been for a skin check and book everyone in, especially because of Covid everyone is delaying everything and when life gets back to normal you might book in for that skin check and had you got it earlier, you could save your own life,” the father of six said.

Mr Allen, who is setting up the Australian Skin Cancer Foundation charity, was also diagnosed with throat cancer earlier in the year and is now recovering from 35 rounds of radiation.

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Originally published as Young mum who survived stage three melanoma is pregnant with second child