Jenny Ganim's surgeon wasn't too worried about a mark on her cheek. She was at an annual skin check, where he'd removed a few basal cell carcinomas. But Mrs Ganim had the spot removed anyway.
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Later - looking at the thumbprint sized scar it left - she thought, "You idiot, why did you even say anything?".
"He wasn't concerned, I didn't need to do anything about it," she said.
Weeks later, the surgeon called at 7am to say he needed to see her that day.
The mark had been a very young melanoma. It had not shown up in two pathology tests, but came up as melanoma in the third.
"When I got to the hospital [my surgeon] said to me, 'We need to be concerned about that little spot that's on your cheek. Because that was a melanoma'," she said.
"'So we need to put you straight into surgery'."
Just four days later, surgeon's removed more from her face, at the site of the melanoma. The cut was maybe 3 centimetres long by then.
Mrs Ganim said she tried to remain strong, but was crumbling. Her first reaction was shock that the mark on her face was a melanoma.
"It's just the fear, it's the fear of not knowing. 'Has it spread?' was probably my biggest fear," she said.
"I wear [the scar] with a bit of a badge of honour. Its there, I can’t hide it. But the one thing it has done, it creates a talking point with people."
After that, she just wanted to get it done and get it out.
Soon after the first surgery, the surgeons needed remove even more. By the end three and a half centimetres had been taken out of Mrs Ganim's face.
Fortunately the melanoma had not spread.
Just after Christmas 2019 Mrs Ganim got the all-clear. From the first appointment to that moment had taken about 10 months.
It was a stressful period for her, her husband and three children. Especially the initial waiting period, she said.
"They were all holding their breath with me," Mrs Ganim said.
"Then you know, I guess the relief of it, once we'd gone through all the surgeries, and got the clear on it."
Conversations about sunscreen have become more heated in the family since.
Mrs Ganim first mentioned the mark at a routine yearly skin check. She hadn't always had it, but it was only a little spot.
Mrs Ganim began to get skin checks in her mid-40s. She first saw advertisements on social media, then at her next GP visit the doctor asked about it.
Before the melanoma was found Mrs Ganim had needed a few basal cell carcinomas cut out.
The disappointment Mrs Ganim first felt about her thumb-print sized scar soon faded.
She now has a scar from just under her eye, to below her jaw.
And her experience has been a huge wake-up call for family and friends.
"I wear [the scar] as a bit of a badge of honour. It's there, I can't hide it. But the one thing it has done, it creates a talking point with people," she said.
"People go, 'Oh I've got this mark', like I'm a doctor. And I'm just like, 'You just need to go get them checked'.
"It's been a massive discussion with everybody, about skin checks."
Mrs Ganim will take part in Bendigo's upcoming March for Melanoma.
The event aims to raise funds for non-for-profit Melanoma Institute Australia, and awareness of the disease.
Skin cancers account for about 80 per cent of newly diagnosed cancers in Australia.
Melanoma is the third most common type of cancer diagnosed across the country.
Along with New Zealand, Australia has the world's highest rate of melanomas.
About one in 13 men will be diagnosed with melanoma by age 85, and one in 22 women.
The disease killed 1281 Australians in 2016.
About two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer more broadly by the time they are 70.
Other non-melanoma skin cancers include basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.
Mrs Ganim is partly marching because she can: she has the opportunity while so many people don't.
She's also happy to be part of anything that could bring the conversation about melanoma to the forefront.
Mrs Ganim said it was too soon to know exactly the ramifications being treated for skin cancer would have on her life more broadly.
She's lived at Drummond for about 20 years, running a wholesale fruit and vegetable business with her husband.
It means a trip for him to Epping every night to the wholesale market.
Read more: 'Huge shock' - Bendigo family battles cancer
The business supplies restaurants, cafes and hospitals in central Victoria, the Macedon Ranges and Hepburn Shire.
It's now just a small family business, but in the past they had shops.
A chef by trade, Mrs Ganim and her husband started off just supplying themselves.
"Then everybody started going 'Well if you're getting yours, can you get ours?" she said.
"It started off like that 20 years ago, and then we grew, and grew it into a large business with retail outlets, and scaled it back down to a manageable small family business."
The family have kept going simply because they love their customers.
Mrs Ganim has been cancer free since December. She's upped the frequency of her skin checks to every six months. And, she can't stop saying: "Just get checked, keep getting checked."
March for Melanoma, March 15, from 8am, Lake Weeroona.
Find out more at: bendigo.melanomamarch.org.au/
For skin cancer information, visit: cancer.org.au/
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Elspeth Kernebone
Accident brought me to journalism, but every day convinces me again that strong media is more important than ever. After a starting off as the sole reporter in a tiny NSW town, I’m loving the teeming metropolis that is Bendigo. Focussed on health, business and education. Got a tip? Email elspeth.kernebone@bendigoadvertiser.com.au.
Accident brought me to journalism, but every day convinces me again that strong media is more important than ever. After a starting off as the sole reporter in a tiny NSW town, I’m loving the teeming metropolis that is Bendigo. Focussed on health, business and education. Got a tip? Email elspeth.kernebone@bendigoadvertiser.com.au.
