Ever since my journey began, there has been a constant support from back in the UK. I was first introduced to Diane Cannon by a mutual friend here in Hong Kong (what are the chances of that??!) Diane works for Melanoma UK and lives in my home city of Liverpool. This woman has been a pillar of support for me. Never meeting her, she would send me video messages giving me lots of advice and would often point me in the right direction. She even offered to support my mum and dad who are going through all this without me by their side. Diane is a wonderful human and her work for Melanoma UK shows just how passionate she is about raising awareness about this awful illness.
Through my blog; and especially my poems, I have managed to reach a wider audience. I have spoken to several newspapers and magazines across the world to try and raise awareness about the dangers of the sun and being sun safe. I’m currently working with my school here in Hong Kong to make them a sun safe school. It’s my mission to now educate the new generation of youngsters about being safe in the sun. I want people to understand that applying sunscreen is just as important as brushing your teeth.
Back in April Diane messaged me to say that Melanoma UK would like me to be one of the new ambassadors. I was honoured to be given this role. We had a video call with each other explaining the role and it was the first time I got to actually talk with her ‘face to face’. Of course I accepted the invitation and now I will do my best to raise awareness whenever I can. My first mission is to make my current school a sun safe school. I’m also trying to work with the Hong Kong government to see if we can put out warnings on all of the government run beaches here. it might be a long process but I will do my best. As I said in one of my previous posts, every cloud has a silver lining. I feel that having melanoma has opened up a whole new world for me and I’m determined to turn it into a positive experience.
The Melanoma in Me 