Melanie Wellings has a one-in-a-million cancer

NationalWorld.com

A mum who thought she was suffering from hay-fever discovered she has a rare cancer that affects fewer than one in a million people. Melanie Wellings, 63, from Gloucestershire was told by doctors in 2021 that she’s the only person in the UK currently living with sinonasal mucosal melanoma (SNMM) – a rare and aggressive cancer that means she now lives with a permanent hole in her face, the size of a small orange. Career-woman Melanie says she’s giving herself to science so that people diagnosed with SNMM in the future will have better treatment options. Now she’s backing a call from Cancer Research UK for people to leave their own legacy and help beat cancer for generations to come by leaving a gift to the charity in their Will.   Video: Cancer Research UK

Transcript

00:00I had streaming nose and runny eyes and sneezing and it'd come and go but come to September

00:24after cricket finished my friend said to me Mel that's not hay fever you wouldn't be getting

00:30hay fever now. I did the sensible thing and rang the doctor's surgery and she just shone

00:36a torch up my nose and said this doesn't look good you need to be in front of a consultant

00:41and we went on to learn that it was a very very rare cancer.

00:46I couldn't touch it, I couldn't look at it, it's a shock to the system.

01:16But when you realise how much you want to live you will do anything to ensure that you're

01:25going to do what has to be done. So I did and it's taken a long time but you know

01:35my fourth year I'm still here. So I've probably annoyed some people but hey ho!

01:54Leave something that's going to help, whatever your family,

01:58yourself, anybody and if you want to live then let's do something about it.

02:05So

02:22to know that we've got another baby from Tom and Leanne is keeping me spirited and making sure that

02:30I want to be here to see that little girl be born, to see her here with Amelia and whether

02:36we got cancer or not just those small family things and friends is very precious.

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