I was 29 when a doctors dismissed my deadly symptom that led to a stage 4 melanoma diagnosis with a low chance of survival. Here’s my warning

Courtney Mangan was 29 when she was given the fatal stage four cancer diagnosis with an 18 percent chance of survival.

The Gold Coast business owner had been to the doctor twice about a ‘worrying’ mole on her back, but he insisted she was fine. It wasn’t until she went to a skin specialist that the disturbing truth came to light.

“I had my first skin check at age 29, which was already too late,” Courtney, now 38, told FEMAIL.

‘I had a mole on my back that I never really saw, but my family told me it was starting to change and urged me to see a doctor.

‘The specialist checked my whole body and said everything looked normal, but I expressed concern about the mole on my back, so he took a cut and sent it to pathology.’

Courtney recalled that the doctor asked her to call back on Monday and said the receptionist would explain everything to her, but alarm bells went off when she received an urgent call from her doctor on Friday morning.

‘I was working in my family business, with my father and brother just meters away from me. My doctor said that unfortunately my mole had come back as level four melanoma and that he had to refer me to a specialist in Brisbane,” she said.

“I immediately went numb; my uncle had died of melanoma a few years earlier. My whole world changed in that moment. I couldn’t see it as anything other than a death sentence.’

At this point, she had not yet received a stage four diagnosis. ‘Level four’ refers to the depth of melanoma’s invasion into the skin. There are five levels. The ‘stage’ is whether the melanoma is advanced past the skin.

Courtney felt isolated after her diagnosis.

“All my friends were looking for spare rooms for their kids when they bought houses, or to take bags with them in case they had an overnight birth,” she said.

‘But I had a hospital bag with me in case my body stopped taking my cancer treatment. I looked at apartments with extra rooms in case my mother needed to come stay with me.

“We had very different realities.”

Courtney went for checkups every three months after doctors removed the birthmark from her shoulder.

One day, over a year later, she suddenly felt a lump on her arm and suspected it was a boil that had yet to rise to the surface.

Courtney also suddenly experienced pain while eating – describing the feeling as an ‘uncomfortable blockage’ in her abdomen.

“I also have irritable bowel syndrome, so I wasn’t sure if that was it,” she said.

A PET scan revealed suspicious activity in her intestines, but a colonoscopy was inconclusive.

Doctors then performed an endoscopy where they found a concerning mass.

“I woke up after the surgery and saw a huge scar on my stomach,” she recalls.

“I was alone in my hospital room all night, and at 4:30 the next morning the doctor came in and told me the cancer had spread to my internal organs and was now in stage four.”

The abandoned woman left shortly after informing Courtney of her diagnosis and was left alone with her thoughts.

‘It was quite scary to be in my mid-30s and hear that. “I knew I would have to undergo more surgeries and more invasive treatments, and that the survival rate would not be high,” she said.

The fourth time, doctors found a mass on Courtney’s thigh and decided they couldn’t remove it.

‘I had to be treated for it because they wanted to know if it really worked. “If they had just cut it out, the cancer could have popped up somewhere else three months later,” she said.

“It was so strange to know that I was just going about my day, but there was cancer in my thigh, festering and spreading.”

Courtney’s mental health has suffered immensely from her diagnosis, but she always tries to look on the bright side.

‘I have been living with cancer for nine years now and it has been difficult. I have read many books on the subject and tried yoga and meditation. I wanted to keep myself in a positive head space.

‘No one coddles you, there is no sugar coating cancer. The doctors just give you the facts.”

She said having to have a scan every three months made her feel like she was living on borrowed time.

“It was just an endless cycle of going to the doctor and waiting to go to the doctor the next time.

‘I was overthinking every pain I had, I was so hyper aware of every symptom I had. I was so aware of my body and thought about it all the time.

‘Then there is a terrible pit in your stomach while you wait for the results.

‘I have never been to the emergency room as often as during my treatment, because you never know how the cancer will manifest itself.

‘If there is inflammation, you will get a biopsy. Then a PET scan. Then an ultrasound. And then there are so many follow-up studies.’

She said she felt like she could “only breathe for three months straight.”

‘I’ve never been happy or free from it. Melanoma is so aggressive, it can keep coming back.’

Courtney relied heavily on her loved ones for support.

‘As a single woman, having a close relationship with my friends and family was so important. They really helped me through my darkest days.”

Her oncologist talked to her about her fertility options and they decided to freeze her eggs before she underwent treatment.

‘I was about to start something that would hopefully save my life, but I had to postpone it to protect my fertility. I was single at the time and wasn’t really thinking about children. I was just thinking about how to stay alive.

“I wasn’t even sure I wanted to delay the immunotherapy process to freeze my eggs.”

Despite being cancer-free for three years, Courtney still feels the weight of her health journey on her shoulders.

‘You can never really shake it off, there’s a dark cloud hanging over you all the time.’

What are the causes of melanoma?

According to Cancer Council In Australia, the risk of melanoma increases with exposure to UV radiation from the sun or other sources such as tanning beds, especially during periods of sunburn (particularly during childhood).

The risk of melanoma is increased for people who:

• unprotected exposure to UV radiation
• a history of tanning and sunburn in children
• a pattern of short, intense periods of exposure to UV radiation
• have many moles – more than 50 on the body and more than 10 above the elbows on the arms
• increase in the number of unusual moles
• depressed immune systems
• a family history of melanoma in a first-degree relative
• fair skin, tendency to burn instead of tan, freckles, light eye color (blue or green), light or red hair color
• have previously had melanoma or non-melanoma skin cancer