Hi Groovers! 

Allira here - I’m fundraising for the Melanoma Institute Australia through the Melanoma March, and I’d be incredibly grateful for your support through donations.

This is my 5th Melanoma March and this is a cause very close to my heart. Some of you may not know that I have a personal connection to Melanoma and cancer. In 2018, I received the scary news that I had stage IV melanoma - a small tumour in my right lung.

I’d previously had a melanoma removed from my right upper arm over 6 years prior & received the all-clear, so the 2018 news was a terrible shock. I’d also had absolutely no symptoms- I was dancing, grooving & being a pest per usual. Feeling as well as I did was so incongruent with that diagnosis. It was a very confusing time.

After the 2018 diagnosis I had surgery to remove the lung tumour but the risk of the melanoma coming back was really high. Without further treatment I felt I’d be playing a waiting game to see where it recurred, and it could recur in a place that was inoperable. I had a few sleepless nights worrying about this & I still get quite anxious before a surveillance scan. 

At the time (2018) immunotherapy was incredibly expensive- it was not yet on the PBS & there was no compassionate access to the drug. The cost certainly added to the stress of the diagnosis. I was lucky enough to eventually receive the immunotherapy but I felt guilty and distressed that others were priced out of this life-saving treatment.

Thanks to all the research into immunotherapy, this particular drug (Nivolumab) is now on the PBS meaning it’s free for people who have been diagnosed with advanced melanoma.

Also thanks to this treatment, I’m now over 6 years recurrence free! It's a big deal in the world of cancer diagnoses. 

Melanoma research into immunotherapy has transformed the treatment of melanoma, and it has shown to be effective in treating other cancer types too. However there is still a lot more research to be done- for example some people don’t respond to immunotherapy & researchers want to understand how to make treatment effective for them.

If you can support melanoma research & the development of immunotherapy, you’re effectively supporting cancer research generally. 43% Australians will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their life, so if you donate you’re effectively supporting a cause that will likely affect your life in some way, whether it be you or people close to you. 

Please, if you are in a position to donate, I would be absolutely grateful if you could donate to this wonderful cause. All donations over $2 are tax deductible & if everyone donated $2, that would be a huge amount of research funding that could really improve life quality & expectancy for people diagnosed with melanoma.

We’re in a cost of living crisis, which makes donations even more important. If you donate anonymously, please let me know privately so I can thank you. It’s hard to describe how these donations make me feel (happy, grateful, relieved…) but I do like to express my appreciation to those who can donate.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my page and read about my story. 

Much love,

Your prance pest 🫶💃