FOR RELEASE: May 17, 2006
GALVESTON, Texas — The tiny black mole on 23-year-old Courtney Freasier’s stomach was only the size of a fine-point marker tip, but it would change her life.
When the strange-looking spot started bleeding one day, Freasier wasted no time making an appointment with a dermatologist, and a speedy biopsy determined the worst: melanoma cancer.
This story is all too familiar to the 53,000 Americans each year diagnosed with melanoma, which is today the fastest-growing cancer in the United States and worldwide. About 7,800 people die each year from the disease, many just months after the initial diagnosis — hence melanoma’s nickname, “the beast.”
Fortunately, Freasier’s story has a happier ending. She was diagnosed in 2000, and today the 29-year-old is a wife, an occupational therapy student at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and an advocate for skin cancer awareness.
She and a group of UTMB students have organized a Walk for Melanoma at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 20, at UTMB’s track, on the corner of Market Street and Holiday Drive. The walk is open to the public and donations will benefit melanoma research. (For more information, visit www.theschlip.com.)
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., organizers of the walk encourage participants to attend a free skin cancer screening event at the Family HealthCare Center, 3828 Ave. N in Galveston. UTMB dermatologists will see patients on a first-come, first-served basis, and no appointment is necessary.
Because melanoma can reappear at any time, Freasier sees her oncologists and dermatologists every three months for check-ups. She has had 25 biopsies, undergone 10 surgeries to remove cancerous lesions and bears about 25 inches of scars.
“I feel like I’ve been given a second chance, and I want to tell anyone who will listen that having a good tan is not worth the risk,” Freasier says.
The University of Texas Medical Branch
Media Hotline (409) 772-6397
Judie Kinonen: jlkinone@utmb.edu