Melanoma Patients Australia

As a nurse working in a regional hospital, I’ve always valued good health and wellbeing and stayed on top of routine cancer screenings. Living in a coastal town in East Gippsland, I lead an active life filled with bush and beach walks, paddling the lakes, and camping. I was fit, healthy, and had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.

In March 2025, what should have been a joyful celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary changed everything. After a routine optometry appointment, my husband and I were sent more than four hours away to The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. That day, I was diagnosed with a rare cancer I’d never heard of, ocular melanoma. I had no symptoms, and the diagnosis felt surreal.

Within a week, my tumour was measured and preparations began for radiotherapy. Eight weeks later, a radioactive plaque was surgically sutured onto my eyeball. I spent five days in isolation while the treatment did its work. Thankfully, early follow up appointments showed healing and vision progressing as expected. My next review will guide future management once biopsy results are available.

Emotionally, the initial shock was the hardest. I left hospital with very little information and struggled to find reliable resources about such a rare cancer. Wanting to speak to someone who understood, I eventually found peer support through online groups and personal connections.

In my first week after diagnosis, I contacted Melanoma Patients Australia. That support was invaluable. Through regular phone calls, emails and telehealth sessions, the MPA nurses provided clear, trustworthy resources and educational information, which was an ongoing reassurance. One nurse’s expertise in ocular melanoma made a profound difference for both my husband and me.

I’m sharing my story to raise awareness and encourage people to ask for thorough eye checks. My mantra has become simple: focus on what you can control. I’m happiest with my family and in nature and deeply grateful for the support I’ve received.

This year marks Melanoma Patients Australia’s first as a Dry July beneficiary, and I am proud to share why this partnership is so important to the people we support.

Each year, more than 18,000 Australians are diagnosed with melanoma. For many, the diagnosis is sudden and overwhelming, bringing fear, uncertainty and a pressing need for clear, trustworthy information about what comes next.

Access to the right information at the right time can be life changing. Funds raised through Dry July will directly support our patient education and trusted resources. These are central to our national support programs and our mission to ensure that no one affected by melanoma walks alone.

Through our education programs and resources, our specialist melanoma nurses guide patients and families from the moment of diagnosis, through treatment, and into life with and beyond melanoma. We support people to understand complex medical information, feel prepared for appointments, manage side effects, and cope with the emotional toll of melanoma, wherever they live in Australia.

For Ingrid, who is living with melanoma and volunteers as a Melanoma Patients Australia Support Group Facilitator, this support has been vital.

“The support from Melanoma Patients Australia has played a significant role in my journey,” Ingrid says. “I strongly encourage anyone living with melanoma to make use of the services and their resources, which are so thorough and deeply supportive.”

Stories like Ingrid’s remind us just how critical these resources are. Without the generosity of supporters and partners like Dry July, Melanoma Patients Australia simply would not be able to provide the education programs, nurse support and evidence based resources that patients rely on at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives.

The demand for melanoma specific education continues to grow.

Dry July funds will contribute to our patient education initiatives, so that more individuals, including people like Ingrid, can feel informed, supported and cared for through each phase of their melanoma experience.

By taking part in Dry July, you are helping to ensure that no one affected by melanoma has to face their diagnosis without support, understanding or hope.

Shannon Anderson

Chief Executive Officer

Melanoma Patients Australia

Finding Gratitude in Every Day

In the week before Christmas 2016, Ingrid attended a routine mammogram and asked clinicians to check a small lump above her breast. A fine needle biopsy was performed and initially returned as a carcinoma of an unknown type. Further CT scans followed, and when the biopsy was retested, Ingrid received life‑changing news: she had metastatic melanoma with an unknown primary.

At the time, Ingrid was in her early fifties and had always considered herself healthy. She had no obvious symptoms and no history that suggested something serious was wrong. The diagnosis came as a complete shock.

Further investigations led to a full axillary lymph node dissection, during which 27 lymph nodes were removed. Seven were found to contain melanoma. Ingrid then underwent a month of radiation therapy to address any remaining cancer cells.

Seven months later, Ingrid was hospitalised again when her breast became swollen, red and painful. Doctors initially believed it was cellulitis and treated her with intravenous antibiotics. However, punch biopsies and a PET scan soon revealed that the melanoma had progressed to stage IV. Ingrid vividly remembers that the scan had “lit up like a Christmas tree.”

That same day, she began targeted therapy with Tafinlar and Mekinist (Taf/Mek). Within seven months of starting treatment, Ingrid reached NED (no evidence of disease). She considers herself fortunate to have experienced minimal side effects initially, allowing her to continue daily life while on treatment.

A few years later, Ingrid developed severe mouth ulcers. Her treatment schedule was adjusted to five days on and five days off instead of daily dosing. Shortly after, scans revealed that the melanoma had metastasised to her brain. Ingrid underwent Gamma Knife radiation, which reduced the tumour by about 50 percent. While it has not fully resolved, she continues to hope for further shrinkage at future scans.

Today, Ingrid remains on targeted therapy, now taken five days on and two days off, as her body continues to respond. She undergoes three‑monthly brain MRIs and CT scans, acknowledging that regular monitoring has become part of her life.

Beyond her diagnosis, Ingrid is most proud of her family. She is the mother of two beautiful children and feels deeply grateful that she was able to witness one of them get married. She now treasures her role as a grandmother to two gorgeous grandchildren, milestones that carry even greater meaning after her cancer journey.

Like many patients, Ingrid and her loved ones initially struggled with disbelief. Hospital visits, treatments and scans quickly became part of her routine, something entirely unfamiliar after a lifetime of good health.

Support has been essential, and Melanoma Patients Australia has played a significant role in Ingrid’s journey. She joined the MPA Facebook support group in 2017 and has now been involved with the organisation for nearly nine years. Today, Ingrid is a Support Group Facilitator for Brisbane, providing connection and understanding to others living with melanoma.

In reflecting on that role, Ingrid once shared that she sometimes feels “selfish” because helping others makes her feel good too. Another patient gently reframed it for her: “But you helped someone.” The reminder reflects the mutual strength found in shared experience.

Melanoma has reshaped Ingrid’s perspective on life. She no longer takes any day for granted and finds joy in simply waking up and being able to do everyday things. Her personal mantra captures this outlook:

“Stressing about the future will rob you of today’s joys.”

Ingrid strongly encourages anyone living with metastatic melanoma to make use of Melanoma Patients Australia’s services, describing their resources as thorough and deeply supportive. For her, some of the most meaningful moments come from sitting with others over a coffee at a support group meeting, talking openly and feeling understood, surrounded by “her tribe.”

By sharing her story, Ingrid hopes others will feel less alone and more empowered to seek support, connection and information. Her journey is one of resilience, gratitude and quiet strength, grounded in the belief that today is worth embracing fully.

Ingrid shared her story with Melanoma Patients Australia in April, 2026.