What is your name?
My name is Anthea Smith.
What is your skin condition?
I have melanoma stage 3c, caused by sunbed use.
I have no idea how long I have to live, as it's extremely sneaky and aggressive.
I have had my whole left ear and tragus amputated, followed by whole left side- inner/middle ear removed, temporal bone, salivary glands, lymph nodes, facial nerve cut and stripped and removal of salivary glands, skin taken from the right leg (knee to hip) to replace the skin, vessels and tissue taken, followed by 32 sessions of radiotherapy to my head, neck and shoulder.
How does your skin condition affect your day-to-day living?
I now wear SPF 50 sun protection each and every day, I also wear my Solbari black sun hat with neck protection, and Solbari black sun wrap. We were able to spend a month in Australia Jan/Feb 2019, and thanks to your fab clothing I didn't have to worry about the risk of burning.
The area of skin that my radiotherapy treatment was targeted at is now extremely sensitive to perfumes and new creams/lotions, and I have been diagnosed with Jessner lymphocytic infiltrate. When my skin reacts, it's extremely itchy with red scaly patches.
What you have found to alleviate it?
My wrap covers the affected area of skin and also keeps it cool. I have creams prescribed by my dermatologist and try my best to keep my condition under some control. I'm glad to be alive and try to find the positives in each and every day.
