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A Texas woman discovered that her birthmark was actually skin cancer.
Ilia J. Smith, 42, wasdiagnosed with stage 2B melanoma in 2020after she scratched her mole and it began bleeding, according to Insider. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association,a mole that itches or bleeds could indicate melanoma.
When her “birthmark” began bleeding, she remembered the time in 2009 when her friend, Tracee Blackburn, a physician assistant who specialized in dermatology, urged her to get the mole checked out.
Smith brushed it off at the time and said it was her birthmark.
After it began to bleed, she texted a pic to Blackburn, who told her to get a biopsy as soon as possible.
According to Insider, the cancer had not yet spread to Smith’s lymph nodes, so she only needed a surgical removal of the cancerous mole. After cutting out a considerable amount of tissue, Smith was screened for skin cancer every three months for the next two years. Now, she is seen only every six months.
Smith told Insider that she was an avid tanner when she was younger. “A lot of my family members are darker-skinned — I wanted to be like my family,” said Smith, who is Nigerian-Irish. “Being African-American, you don’t think about skin cancer.”
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“All this time, I could have been protecting my skin and not maybe have fallen down this route where I can’t even be in the sun at all,” she added after sharing that instead of sunscreen, she would use “more of a tanning lotion that had more of a 3 or 7 SPF.”
Although a self-proclaimed outdoor person, Smith told Insider she has had to dramatically change her lifestyle, ditching tanning beds and avoiding the sun altogether — the latter of which has been proven to be difficult while living in Dallas.
“I love running and I love just being in the sun and taking my daughter to the pool,” Smith said.
source: people.com
