At 17, Kasey Shriver was on top of the world. She had a date to the prom and she was captain of her basketball team; her junior year was moving along perfectly. All of a sudden, her world was turned upside down when the unthinkable happened: She was diagnosed with melanoma. In the midst of her junior year, her fight to beat cancer began.
It all started when she asked her mom to let her get the mole on her back removed. A couple of weeks after getting the mole removed, Kasey’s dermatologist called and said the biopsy came back with melanoma. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. It kills about one person every hour according to the Skin Cancer foundation. When Kasey first heard the news, she was angry. She had to quit her favorite sport, basketball, in the middle of the season.
“It was frustrating to know that I was going to give up half my junior year and nearly all of my senior to cancer. Something that could have probably been prevented if I hadn’t used tanning beds,” Kasey said.
Kasey had to have one surgery to remove the borders around the site of the melanoma. She was left with a seven-inch scar on her back and they also had to take the sentinel lymph nodes out of her left arm to see if the cancer had spread. They also found cancer in the lymph nodes so they had to remove all of them in her left armpit. Since she had no lymph nodes, she had to have a drainage tube placed in her armpit for four weeks.
After the surgeries, Kasey had to do a full year of treatment. That was twelve months of giving herself a shot three to five times a week. She had to miss a lot of school, and she slowly worked her way back into playing volleyball, basketball and softball her senior year.
Kasey says that getting melanoma was a huge wake-up call for her.
“I started to really think about the big picture of life. What really matters and how much of a difference I want to make in the world,” Kasey said. Getting cancer really made her think about what impression she would be leaving and started to appreciate life in general.
Although she will be four years cancer free in January, melanoma is a very aggressive cancer and has a high recurrence rate, Kasey said. She will be at high risk for about 10 years and has to go to the dermatologist every six months and her oncologist once a year. She also has to have blood work twice a year and a CT scan once a year. She was just recently promoted to the once-a-year visits. Although Kasey is no longer under treatment, her doctors still watch her closely.
Kasey, a junior studying exercise and pre-nursing at KU, is currently working with Nebraska to have a law passed banning the use of tanning beds for minors. She has shared her story through testimonies, on Seventeen magazines sun safety issue in 2012. She has done many interviews on radio, TV and news segments. Kasey tells her story on a daily basis.
“People see the scar on my back, ask about it, and right then and there I am educating someone about the dangers of indoor tanning,” Kasey said.
According to the CDC, using an indoor tanning bed before you’re 35 increases your chances of skin cancer by 75 percent. 75 percent, ladies. Something so deadly as melanoma can possibly be avoided so easily by just loving the skin you’re in. Kasey’s story goes to show us that it can happen to any one of us, and that although we feel invincible, we are human and we can get sick.
If you do choose to tan, please be careful. Every girl should have her moles and skin checked at least once a year. Early diagnosis can save your life. Research what bad moles look like and how to tell if you have a mole that could be cancerous. The Skin Cancer Foundation has a how-to on what moles should look like and what might be melanoma. Talk to your doctor, and be mindful. Realize you could be risking your life for something as silly as a tan. Although Kasey lived through it and is stronger today, it isn’t always a happy ending.