John Robson speaks on skin cancer | Stock & Land | 18/01/24 - video Dailymotion

Retired Kyneton stock agent John Robson is spreading the sun safety message, after experimental treatment for skin cancer.

Transcript

00:00 Now John you had a pretty significant cancer scare, what actually happened?

00:04 Yeah back in 2014 I ended up with a melanoma here that was taken off.

00:10 We ended up having to have a second operation because they didn't take enough margins.

00:15 I was told to have skin checks basically for the rest of my life which I had done.

00:19 Got to 2021, I was lying in bed, scratched my underarm and found a great big lump and

00:27 consequently we went from there, ended up with stage 4C metastatic malignant melanoma

00:33 with cancer in both lungs, 2 in the liver, 5 in the chest, 2 in the lymph glands and

00:39 basically was told that my chances of survival were very small.

00:44 You're still standing, what happened?

00:46 We went on the trial and look he did explain that the trial was going to be very rough.

00:51 The side effects were very ordinary but at the end of the day because of how bad I had it

00:57 we ended up having to have a double shot which lifted the side effects by 85%.

01:02 He said you'd end up in hospital within 6 weeks because of the side effects which I did.

01:07 We went through then and said okay we go through all this, what's my chances of survival

01:12 and they were saying they're hopefully maybe somewhere towards 45% chance of maybe living 2 years.

01:19 So what's your message to graziers, to stock agents, to livestock transporters?

01:25 Honestly to get a skin check these days is so easy, it takes no time, it's so cheap.

01:32 I just think because we're always out in the sun and Kite is not the hottest place in the world

01:37 but I've still got it, it's just so easy to get a skin check once every 12 months

01:42 just so that you know where you're at.