Four years ago, Felicity Jewis was told she had just months to live.
She was diagnosed with stage four melanoma less than two weeks after giving birth to her daughter, and immediately began treatment including immunotherapy.
"I had got very skinny and very sick and it was looking quite clear that things weren't looking good," she said.
It wasn't the first time Ms Jewis had heard the word "cancer" used to diagnose her — in 2014, she developed a melanoma on her back.
But, after undergoing various therapies over several challenging years, the now 40-year-old Adelaide engineer was told there was no longer any sign of disease in her body — and a new study shows progress is also occurring at a population level.
The study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, shows a reduction in melanoma incidence rates in people aged zero to 39 in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.
It also shows over 60 per cent of melanoma cases are in the 40-74 age group.
Cancer Council SA said the decline among younger people was clear evidence of the success of childhood sun protection programs such as the decades-long SunSmart Schools.
"It's a really exciting thing to see the statistics coming in to show that all the hard work that schools, communities have been putting in, has actually paid off," Cancer Council SA chief executive Kelly Rowlands said.
Ms Rowlands said children's skin was more sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and teaching sun safe practices in childhood was important to encourage lifelong behaviour.
"We know that it's cumulative — and the more you get sunburnt, the greater your chances are of getting skin cancer in later life," she said.
About 800 schools across South Australia are signed up to the Cancer Council's SunSmart program, covering 129,000 students.
"My melanoma probably was from the sun exposure … but I certainly wasn't irresponsible as a child," Ms Jewis said.
"My daughter is covered head to toe when she goes in the sun and I am the same these days.
"It's fantastic to hear that the results are coming."
In Ms Jewis's case, her initial melanoma was something she at first presumed was not "anything to worry about".
"It was a mole that I had since I was kid," she said.
"But I am a triathlete so I used to wear a lot of bathers and sports bras and things, and so it would rub, and it would bleed."
The melanoma and its surrounding tissue were removed, as well as lymph nodes near her breast.
But a few years later, when Ms Jewis was pregnant with her daughter, she found another lump.
"Just after I had my baby, they did some tests and they had found out it had progressed quite significantly and that I had stage four cancer," she said.
With the support of her husband, family, and doctors, Ms Jewis was given a range of treatment options, including immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and radiotherapy.
Her parents financially supported one of the treatments she received because, at the time, it was not listed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
After undergoing various therapies, Ms Jewis was told there was no evidence of disease in her body — but "frequently" sees an oncologist and routinely has scans.
"I have regular check-ups … [and] I am very thankfully up to six-month scans now," she said.
"I've been very fortunate that I am back to who I was."
