32
Neighbors
September 2017
www.GilbertSunNews.com
Melanoma scare prompts local woman to warn others BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA
Kelsey Furey, a fourth grade teacher at Tempe’s Curry Elementary and a Gilbert resident, underwent a cancer scare that has her offering warnings to others: Get a second opinion and avoid tanning beds. She advises young women especially against tanning beds because she believes they caused her melanoma. Furey started tanning at local salons as a teenager, often going three times weekly – a practice she now bitterly regrets. “I think you just get in the mindset of being tan. But melanoma risk rises 75 percent when someone uses a tanning bed before age 30,” she said. “If I had known these statistics when I was young, I never would have put myself at such risk.” She said since a cancer scare last June, she’s become a vocal advocate for sunscreens, sun-repellent clothing, and regular skin check-ups. She offers her backstory as a cautionary tale. “I want people of the Valley to read my story of ignorance and realize how important it is to use high levels of water-resistant SPF, get skin checks often with your dermatologist, and never use tanning beds,” she said. “The World Health Organization now
classifies tanning beds as the same cancer risk as tobacco, asbestos and nuclear waste.” According to the American Cancer Society, one in nine high school girls has used a tanning device. “Despite the industry’s claims of ‘healthy and attractive skin,’ the science is very clear. The ultraviolet radiation caused by indoor tanning beds is proven to cause skin cancer,” said the ACS Cancer Action Network, which is lobbying state legislatures to make them off-limits to anyone under 18. Conversely, groups like tanningtruth. com agree that exposure to UV rays “from the sun or sunbeds” is considered a carcinogen by WHO and the National Institutes of Health, and they have their response: “So is bacon.” Furey said she learned she had melanoma after receiving a phone call from her doctor’s office following removal of a mole on her back that had become bothersome. “My family physician didn’t see anything abnormal but said she’d remove it if my insurance approved. I had it shaved off, and the biopsy came back three days later as melanoma,” she said.
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“My physician told me this over the phone, so I had little to no information. All I knew was that melanoma is cancer of the cells in the skin that produce pigment.” Furey had the report faxed to her dermatologist, and made an appointment for the next day so she could have the doctor read the results to her. “I was told I had stage four melanoma, which meant that the cancer has spread to other organs in my body. I sobbed uncontrollably, as the survival rate is very low for this stage of melanoma, the deadliest form of the three skin cancers,” she said. “My world collapsed around me and everything felt frozen.” Sharing the news with As a teenager, Kelsey Furey used to visit tanning salons three family and friends brought times a week. further anguish to the contained cancer cells. A week after my 29-year-old. surgery, I heard back from my surgeon “I had to sob on the phone and tell that the surgery was successful and all my closest family members that I was cancer cells had been removed. I’m now just told I had a few years left to live. I in partial remission,” she said. didn’t know what to do with myself.” Though Furey is relieved beyond meaUpon learning of her diagnosis, sure, she has taken up the cause of using friends and family sprang into action. precautions to avoid melanoma. A former high school classmate, Kend“If I’d known more information about all Lang, started a GoFundMe page to sun safety, especially living here in help cover medical costs, and sisterArizona, I would have been much more in-law Alexis Furey accompanied her careful. For the rest of my life, I will have to countless doctor visits. scars across my body that will remind Furey gathered her strength and beme of my ignorance,” she said. gan researching melanoma, and opted “If my story can inspire one person for a second opinion. to stop using tanning beds, then my job “I got in the next week with a great is done.” skin cancer surgeon and cytologist Furey must now undergo thorough – both were well-versed in working skin checks every two months for the with cancer patients and explaining next five years. results. Thankfully, the second opinion “There is the possibility that my melaproduced better results.” noma cells can come back at any time, Furey said she was told she didn’t anywhere on my body,” she explained. have stage four melanoma, but stage “Patients who have had melanoma three. are also more likely to develop other “There’s no way to determine melacancers throughout their lives, such as noma staging without the completion breast and liver.” of three tests – the pathology from When Furey discovered her melanoma the skin biopsy, a CT/PET scan, and a was in remission, she had Lang close lymph node biopsy,” she explained. down the GoFundMe page. She instead “Over the course of three weeks I encourages donations to the Melanoma accomplished each of these tasks.” Research Foundation in her honor. She said her family and friends In August, she began her fifth year of were supportive throughout this teaching at Curry Elementary. journey. “That was my first question to my “The best course of action was cancer doctor, ‘Can I go back to school surgery so I went under the knife to in August?’ I love teaching. My passion is remove eight inches of skin off my education and inspiring children to love back, as well as lymph nodes that learning.”