Stung by Skin Cancer | Shannon's Story

In 2024, Shannon was diagnosed with Nodular Malignant Melanoma.

What started off as a routine GP checkup, quickly turned into immediate panic over a suspicious mole located on Shannon's upper back.

The doctor didn't waste any time and performed a biopsy on the unwelcome spot that immediately put a haze over all of us. We were met with confusion, concern, panic, and fear of the unknown.

Three days after the biopsy was taken, we received the terrifying phone call that confirmed our worries; Shannon was carrying the most aggressive form of skin cancer in the way of a barely recognised but greatly unwelcome skin spot.

The following days and weeks took their toll on Shannon's mental state while we sat around waiting for a phone call that will tell us what our next step is.

In this time, Shannon took the opportunity to reevaluate what is most important to him and his family. He made sure all his affairs were in order should the next challenge to face was to be THE challenge. He decided to cut down on his workload to pay more attention to the things that really matter to him; his family, his home, his friends, and his impact on this Earth.

Surgery was a scary concept for everyone involved, but we knew how important it was, so off Shannon went to hospital, with a head full of concerns and a wife full of angst. But Shannon is a fighter, so he held himself together and put on a brave face, and went in for surgery.

The procedure left Shannon with a massive wound in his back, and a large incision under each of his arm pits. The recovery from surgery was slow. Shannon was unable to do much body movement, to ensure he didn't break any sutures that were holding his back and under arm incisions together. Time off work and on bed rest was a challenge for Shannon, as a hard working man, father and husband, he had to remind himself the importance of taking the time to heal and push other priorities aside.

Then, we received news. After weeks of waiting, crying, planning... We received the news that the entire cancer had been removed before it had a chance to spread further through Shannon's body, and he could go back to living life without the daunting thoughts of his cancer lingering over his head.

We celebrated, cried again, and took a moment to reflect. We reflected on what we had just gone through, what we could have done better (i.e regular skin checks), and what we are going to do moving forward.

We felt like we just had our lives handed back to us and a whole lot of new opportunities handed to us and you bet ya, we dove straight into those opportunities and began brainstorming how we can make our mark in our community of friends and family, and we started strategising how we could MAKE A CHANGE.

This, is where we adopted the idea of helping spread awareness around both mental heath AND skin cancer - two taboo topics that so often go hand in hand.

We both decided we would start a course that will help us aid others through mental health and disability support. We began opening discussions with our close friends and family by simply asking them "so, how have you been, really?". We expanded our network and began reaching out to our local community, encouraging regular meet ups that offer a safe, non judgemental environment to open up about their health, their struggles, and giving them the opportunity to find support any way that was needed.

The success of all of these uplifting changes in our lives then led us to an idea... Let's create a movement that encourages open discussions and active support, and let's get it started with some fun, funky, vibrant shirts!

So, this is where we are up to now. We have just launched our website and our first collection of men's and women's shirt designs, hats, and rashies.

We are so excited to share this journey with our community, and we are so thankful for the second chance at life that Shannon has been given. This experience has been a huge wake up call for all of our families, and made us realise that someone needs to step up and speak up about the importance of mental health and skin cancer. If our movement can save one life today, imagine how many it can save in the days, months, years and decades to come.

For information on how to protect yourself from skin cancer, view the link below

SAVE YOUR SKIN - Click here for the latest information at the Cancer Council website