She wasn’t making a mountain of a molehill.
An Australian model and influencer had her life turned upside down after a seemingly harmless freckle turned out to be a life-threatening skin cancer — which she attributes to spending most of her youth in the sun. The cancer survivor, who has since had the spot surgically removed, opened up about her harrowing saga in a post to her 173,000 Instagram followers.
“As you can see in the first image, my melanoma spot looked like a regular mole,” Oceana Strachan wrote in the post along with photos juxtaposing the innocuous-looking leg blemish with a scar she sported following its removal.
The mother-of-one added that she’s “very lucky that all I’m left with is a scar.”
The now-26-year-old bombshell had been suffering from melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, which accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths despite constituting only 1% of cases. While the cause is unclear, melanoma is linked to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The condition is particularly insidious as it can resemble a freckle or faint mole, making cancer difficult to detect before it snowballs out of control
Strachan’s cancer saga began in 2019 after the Wollongong resident noticed a small growth on her skin, which she initially dismissed as a hair follicle or pimple. However, the influencer grew concerned after the mark changed in size and shape and she eventually reported it to a doctor.
Medics initially claimed that it was a harmless mole, but by two years later Strachan grew more concerned and prodded her physicians for further tests.
“I noticed changes like itching that raised a red flag for me which is why I persisted for a biopsy,” the distraught patient wrote on Instagram.
A subsequent examination confirmed Strachan’s worst fears: She had stage two melanoma, which meant that the disease had the potential to metastasize to other parts of her body and potentially turn life-threatening.
“I’m 25 and I don’t want to die this young,” said the tearful social media star, who had just been married and had a baby on the way, per a recent documentary chronicling her condition titled “Skin Deep.”
Strachan attributed her cancer to the fact that she was constantly exposed to the sun during her childhood and teens.
“I remember summers as a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old,” she explained in the documentary. “It would be 8 o’clock in the morning to 4 o’clock in the afternoon, you build this base tan and I would feel reluctant to wear sunscreen because I wouldn’t burn after that, I would just go darker.”
She added that had also ignored critics who tried to warn her about the dangers of sun-baking.
“I’ve had so many constantly tell me that there’s nothing healthy about a tan. And I cringe when I think back to my responses,” recounted Strachan. “I said things like, ‘You don’t look healthy without one’ and ‘You have to die of something,’ which I can’t believe those words came out of my mouth.’”
The internet gal has since had the mole removed and will undergo further tests to ensure that the cancer doesn’t spread in the future.
However, Strachan is just grateful to have beaten the disease, and credits “early detection” for saving her life.
“Being aware and having self-initiative is what saved me and thankfully I was able to be one of the lucky ones to catch it early enough,” she said in a recent Instagram post, adding that she’s very lucky a “scar” is all she was left with.
“Going through melanoma I didn’t know if I was going to survive,” the relieved Instagrammer continued. “I didn’t know the outcome. So I feel incredibly grateful to be where I am today.”
The self-professed “sun lover” also called her experience a “wake up call” and is using her story to shed light on the dangers of staying out in the sun sans protection.
“I’m 25 with olive skin.. unfortunately melanoma doesn’t care how old you are or what type of skin you have,” she said last year in a post. “Please go and get your skin checked! Do it for you, your loved ones and your future.”
In a similar carcinogenic catastrophe earlier this month, a Canadian mother resembled an “acid attack victim” after taking chemotherapy cream for her skin cancer — which she apparently developed after neglecting to use sunscreen for years.
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