For as long as she could remember, there had been a mole on Darcy's chest. It was there in plain sight, but she had never really paid much attention it.
Then one day four years ago, all that changed. Darcy, from Salford, came home from university and her mum noticed something wasn't quite right.
“She said to me, ‘that mole looks a bit different,’ and then maybe six months later she said it again and suggested I get it checked out," Darcy, now 24, said.
She went to her GP for advice, but was told everything looked fine and there was nothing to worry about. But it continued to play on Darcy's mind, and when she started looking back on photos of herself, she could see a change in her mole in each picture.
A few months later, Darcy had an appointment with a nurse for something unrelated and decided to ask at the end about the mole again because she still didn’t feel like things were quite right.
The nurse brought up ABCDEs of moles. That's A for Asymmetry, B for Border, C for Colour, D for Diameter, and E for Evolving.
“It's all the signs that you should look out for in a mole. She just got that up on a computer and checked off the kind of things they look for if they're going to do a referral,” Darcy said.
The nurse told Darcy she wasn’t too concerned about it but as it did meet several ABCDEs, she would refer her to a specialist.
In February 2020, the then 21-year-old was given the terrifying news that she had skin cancer. At the time she had no idea was melanoma was, and said she 'wanted the floor to swallow her up'.
“I remember the doctor during my diagnosis appointment said, ‘we really sorry, but it's melanoma’," she said. "I’d never heard of melanoma before, so I didn't know what he meant.
“I didn't panic and asked what is that, then I heard the word cancer, I was like right, and then that was it and I just couldn't couldn't take in anything else he was saying after that.
"I felt a bit numb,"
Darcy, who was supported by the Teenage Cancer Trust throughout her diagnosis and treatment, said doctors 'were really surprised' that she had skin cancer.
“At the hospital where I was first diagnosed, I was the youngest skin cancer patient they'd had at 21 and they really didn't think it was going to be anything.
“They were just as shocked as I was because, you know, I told them that I'd never had any bad sunburns. I've never been in a tanning bed, I do have the typical skin type that does have a lot of moles and has to be a bit more aware of their moles. Other than that, I don’t feel like I'd put myself at any kind of further risk of getting skin cancer,” she said.
From there, Darcy had her initial surgery to remove them followed by another surgery to remove a wider area around the mole to make sure that they'd got everything.
“I haven't had any further treatment other than that, it was just a lot of scans to kind of make sure it hadn’t spread anywhere. It's just all about monitoring now and checking my skin all the time,” she said.
Teacher Darcy believes there isn't enough in the curriculum to educate children and young people on the signs of cancer and importance of knowing their bodies.
New research by Teenage Cancer Trust supports this, and reveals that less than half of 18 to 24-year-olds can correctly identify any of the five main signs and symptoms of cancer in young people.
They include lumps, bumps or swellings, unexplained tiredness, mole changes, persistent pain, and significant weight change.
Over the last few years, Darcy has delivered cancer awareness workshops at schools to raise awareness and educate them on what they should be looking out for.
Darcy said: “I've talked to all the children about the common signs and symptoms of cancer, about sun safety, about why they get the HPV vaccine to protect against cervical cancer and things like that.
“Often the feedback I get is that they never knew a lot of the information that they've been given during these workshops and that it's made them start checking themselves.
“I've had feedback from students saying after those workshops 'I had a mole that I never thought anything of but actually now I look at it, it does look like the pictures that you showed us, so I've gone to my doctor to get it looked at'. That to me makes me feel that I’ve really had an impact,” she said.
She says it's vital that young people check their bodies regularly for any changes, and advises them to check with a doctor if they are unsure on anything.
“I think the phrase ‘best to check’ that Teenage Cancer Trust uses is fantastic - it's always better to be told that it's nothing by a doctor then leave it and it be something and just be really aware of the five main signs and symptoms of cancer as well," she added.
“So not just changing moles being one of them but also lumps, and unexplained weight loss, and things like that,”
Darcy says these days she is far more positive in life than when she was initially diagnosed.
“I've got a completely different outlook on life to be fair and I think and a lot changed from having my diagnosis and it just made me look at things a lot differently. I changed jobs not long after my diagnosis because I realised I wanted to be doing something different and more rewarding, which is why I ended up becoming a teacher.
“It took me a long time to get over that, and I had this period where I was really worried about everything on my body, I was just checking every single day and was really, really worried about every kind of mole and any little lump or anything like that.
“It will be three years this month since I was diagnosed and I finally kind of got past that now, so I’m ot as worried. I still check myself every month like I should but it's not in my thoughts all the time,” she said.
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