Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown has a warning for locals after her own journey with skin cancer. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
It’s easy to brush off the odd lump or bump – after all, they usually go away by themselves.
It’s even easier when you have a doctor’s appointment coming up, anyway. Why not just wait a little longer?
That small decision could have had disastrous consequences for Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown.
In July of 2024 she noticed a bump on her scalp but didn’t think much of it.
Six months later she pointed it out to her doctor at her annual 360 skin check.
“They biopsied it and it needed a plastic surgeon,” she said.
“That was a bit scary. It took until March to get an appointment for day surgery.
“My GP told me it was three centimetres deep by the time it was removed.”
The Lord Mayor spent the next 10 days with a head full of staples and felt thankful for it.
If the cancer was any larger it would have required a skin graft, and potentially the permanent loss of her hair.
There was also the risk it had spread.
“These things can move quickly,” she said.
“You don’t realise how much it plays on your mind until you hear the doctor say those magic words, ‘You’re cancer free’.
“I looked like Frankenstein for a while, but it was worth it.”
Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown after having a three-centimetre deep skin cancer removed from her head earlier this year. Photo: Tania Brown.
The Lord Mayor shared her story at the opening of the new Crown Medical Skin Clinic at Figtree Grove.
The sister clinic of Crown Steet Medical in Figtree, there is a dedicated team of three skin cancer doctors and a dermal clinician.
Practice manager Mary Shalala said in the five weeks since the clinic opened they had performed 132 skin cancer checks.
“It’s not a luxury, it’s an essential,” she said.
“One in three people will be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer.
“Skin cancer can affect any part of the body – the top of the head, the hair line, the back of the neck or behind the ears.
“That’s why it’s so important to have a doctor perform a thorough check at least once a year, or every six months if you are at high risk.
“It can be lifesaving if we are able to catch and remove it before it spreads. If it’s too late, it’s too late.”
The Lord Mayor said if even one person booked a skin check after hearing her story, sharing it was well worth it.
She said finding a cancer on her head was a reminder that every step of ‘Slip, Slop, Slap,’ was equally important.
“I get a bit vain about showing my head, but if people understand how important it is to act quickly, that could save a life,” she said.
“So many lives a year are lost to skin cancer. I’ve always been diligent about sunscreen, but I grew up playing tennis without a hat in the 70s; we didn’t think about it then.
“There’s lots of things like that – you apply your sunblock before you go to the beach, but if you lie on your stomach to sunbake the soles of your feet are exposed, and not many of us apply sunblock there.
“I’m trying to be more diligent about wearing a hat every day and applying sunscreen to places like the tops of my hands that are exposed but are easy to forget about.
“Most importantly – act, don’t delay, get checked.”
