It hasn’t been an easy ride for Emma Dunlop, of Cranebrook, after she was told she had stage four Melanoma.
Ms Dunlop is now hoping to raise much-needed funds with March for Melanoma this Sunday, March 20, with $18,000 already raised.
After being told she had the all clear, Ms Dunlop was having regular check ups every three months after her cancer was first discovered when she got a hairline freckle checked.
Just under a year later, doctors found a small mass on her lung.
While she was on her honeymoon overseas, Ms Dunlop received the phone call that no one wants to take – the mass had spread.
Ms Dunlop will be taking part in the Western Sydney March for Melanoma, held at Jamison Park, to help raise awareness of the cancer.
“I found out from a poster – all I saw was Melanoma and whenever I see it written somewhere I always look at it because I know it will directly affect me,” she said.
“I created a team, that now has about 50 people signed up to it for the walk, because if I want to do something I go out and fight for it, no one is going to come to me.”
All funds raised by Ms Dunlop’s team will be donated to the Melanoma Institute of Australia.
Ms Dunlop is currently going through immunotherapy where she takes tablets that target the cancer through her immune system in a bid to make it smaller.
With no cure and currently sitting on a waiting list for a clinical trial, Ms Dunlop’s future is unknown.
“I’m doing the walk to create awareness around Melanoma and raise funds for research,” she said.
“If research doesn’t continue, my days are going to be numbered.”
“A lot of people always say ‘it won’t happen to me,’ but they don’t realise how quickly it can happen and how quickly it can change your life, just like it has to me,” Ms Dunlop said.
The march will start at 9am.
For more information on the Melanoma March visit melanomamarch2016.gofundraise.com.au.
