Support the Timberjay by making a donation.

Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

A lesson learned the hard way

Young mother battles melanoma, shares newfound awareness

Alison Zaverl
Posted 6/20/15

TOWER - Living in northern Minnesota, we all love the sunshine, when it actually does shine. The sun, however, can be very harmful to our skin. For Tower native Valerie Lenci, this was a lesson …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

A lesson learned the hard way

Young mother battles melanoma, shares newfound awareness

Posted

TOWER - Living in northern Minnesota, we all love the sunshine, when it actually does shine. The sun, however, can be very harmful to our skin. For Tower native Valerie Lenci, this was a lesson learned the hard way. She was diagnosed with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, when she was just 27-years-old.  

Valerie noticed a mole smaller than a pencil eraser on her arm. It was raised, and it itched terribly. Lenci scratched off the mole and it grew back. 

Valerie went in to the hospital to get the mole checked out, and originally the doctor was not worried about the mole. But she asked for the mole to be biopsied, just in case, and when she checked back, the doctor sat her down and gave her the news. It wasn’t the news she was hoping to hear.

“Cut it out!” was Valerie’s initial reaction. The doctor told her it was more serious than that and the mole could only be removed surgically. 

Valerie, a mother of three and nurse at the Scenic Rivers Clinic in Tower, had to have wide excisions or skin grafts taken from her arm and thigh. She had her skin grafts when one of her sons was only four months old and she remembers the surgery cost her months of valuable time with her son. She couldn’t even hold him for a few weeks. The skin grafts resulted in permanent scarring.  “Lots of people think I burned my arm, because no one really knows what melanoma is.” 

 Valerie now has “newfound awareness of her skin,” which is why she wanted to share her story, to help spread newfound awareness to us all, about our largest organ, the skin.

Life with melanoma isn’t easy. Her follow-up trips to the doctor include dermatology appointments every six months (if new moles arise, then she must go in immediately), and oncology appointments yearly, lab work, and yearly chest x-rays. Lenci has had ten more wide excisions since the first few. She is required to get one when a mole comes back positive as cancer. Melanoma is not a once in a lifetime event; patients live with the unpredictable disease forever.

“It’s not just skin cancer, it is a lifelong process,” she said.

Melanoma is the fastest growing and most preventable form of cancer. In skin cancer cases, there is a three-to-five percent chance that the cancer is melanoma. Lenci is trying to raise awareness of the disease. She said many cases of skin cancer are caused by too much sun exposure without protection, and by tanning beds. The World Health Organization classifies tanning beds as a group one carcinogen, which places it in the same group as tobacco. In Minnesota, it is considered so risky to use a tanning bed that you must be eighteen in order to use one, or have parental consent. Skin cancer is now the most common cancer in fifteen to twenty-nine-year-olds due to tanning beds. Using a tanning bed can increase one’s chance of skin cancer by twenty-percent after just the first use, and two percent every use after that. “Tanning hundreds of times is cumulative. It [cancer] might not happen today, but it can happen tomorrow,” Valerie added. 

Risk factors for skin cancer include fairer skin, genetics, twenty-five plus moles, indoor tanning, or having a mole that doubles in size or turns blacker in a two-month period. Valerie had a combination of fair skin and genetics. She also noted that we should be “hyperaware of skin and mole changes.” While Lenci’s mole was darker and constantly changing, moles are classified in five ways. 

“You should always be cautious of the asymmetry, border, color, diameter, and evolvement of your mole,” she said. “When your mole is not even on both sides, your asymmetry may be off. Normal moles are round, if your mole is not round, have it checked out. The darker the mole, the higher the risk. If your mole is over the size of the pencil eraser and changing over time, it’s time to head in and check it out.”

Valerie mentioned the prevention she uses for herself and her children.

“Being smart in the sun is important. Put on sunscreen, reapply it, wear hats, sunglasses, and protective clothing, and don’t sit in the sun for long periods of time,” she cautioned.

“Life can change in a moment,” she said. “If I can help save someone’s life, then that’s why I am sharing my story.” 

Allison Zaverl is a 2015 graduate of Ely Memorial High School