Anna Rowe first noticed a bump the size of a small pimple on her forehead in 2021. After months of nagging from her dad, she went to a doctor to get it checked out.
Fast-forward three years, and the 24-year-old university student is now facing expensive surgery to remove what turned out to be skin cancer.
The idea the bump was cancerous had never occurred to Anna as she thought skin cancers appeared as ‘moles’ and she hadn’t been a ‘tanning person’ growing up.
Despite her first doctor suspecting the bump was cancerous in 2021, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that she was scheduled to have it removed.
Incredibly, many doctors were concerned about removing the spot due to scarring.
Anna said she felt doctors dismissed her concerns and regrets not pushing further to have the spot removed when it was first detected.
‘The very first doctor that I went to didn’t do any tests to see if the bump was cancerous but he looked at it and thought it was cancer,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘His solution was to burn it off, so he tried to do that multiple times.
‘He made me come back every week to try and burn it away for six weeks.
‘Obviously, I was just trusting the doctor but after those six weeks I told him I wanted to try something else because the burning wasn’t working.’
Anna Rowe is facing a $6,000 surgery, which she can’t afford as a Melbourne university student, to remove a large skin cancer that started as a small, pimple-like spot
Ms Rowe visited four doctors and watched as her skin cancer grew before she finally recieved a diagnosis
The continual attempts to ‘burn’ the spot away resulted in damage to Anna’s skin, frustrating her even further.
‘He just kept saying, “We’ll try one more time, just once more and it’ll work. It’s nearly gone”,’ Anna said.
‘I essentially had to fight with him and just leave his office because I knew it just wasn’t working.’
While Anna had given up on ‘burning’ the spot, she was still determined to undergo tests to find out if it was cancerous and have it removed.
‘After the first doctor I went to a proper skin cancer clinic and they did a biopsy there,’ she said.
‘I’m not sure if the doctor did the biopsy wrong or if they got the sample from the wrong spot because the test didn’t show anything.
‘I was relieved and they gave me this cream to make the spot go away.’
Ms Rowe used the cream until it ran out, and continued the monitor the spot over the next year while she studied overseas.
Many doctors refused to approve surgery to remove Ms Rowe’s suspicious spot as it would cause scarring
When she returned to Australia, she decided to visit the clinic again as the spot had grown in size.
‘They brushed me off and said everything was fine because they’d already done a biopsy,’ Anna said.
‘The doctor didn’t do anything except reassure me it would go away by itself.’
It wasn’t until Anna saw another two doctors that a second biopsy was carried out which found the spot was cancerous.
One major barrier she faced was doctors refusing to surgically remove the spot due to its potential to scar.
‘I just wanted to get it cut out and no one would let me get it out,’ Ms Rowe said.
‘All of them said I was too young and wouldn’t want a scar on my forehead.
‘I would rather have a scar than cancer.
‘I just can’t understand why medical professionals would be putting vanity above my health.’
Anna moved to Melbourne to complete her master’s degree in translation and it was there she found the doctor who finally took her concerns seriously.
‘I noticed within the past couple of months the spot had started to grow quite quickly and it also started to become painful,’ she said.
‘It was funny because when I got the diagnosis that it was cancer I wasn’t stressed, I was more so relieved that someone finally listened to me.’
Ms Rowe’s spot began quickly growing and becoming more painful after she moved to Melbourne to complete her master’s degree
The doctor has scheduled Anna to undergo surgery to remove the cancer in three weeks’ time.
However, she faces having to delay the procedure due to it costing $6,000 – money that she simply doesn’t have.
‘I don’t know but I’m hoping I won’t have to push it back,’ Ms Rowe said.
‘It just depends funds wise.’
A group of Ms Rowe’s ‘amazing’ colleagues at the Hotel Chadstone have started a GoFundMe to help cover her surgery and recovery costs.
It is not yet known how extensive the surgery will be as doctors will only be able to understand the scope of the cancer once Anna’s in surgery.
‘From what I understood from the consultation, I’ll probably have about a week or week-and-a-half off work and then follow up consultations to get stitches out make sure I’m recovering,’ she said.
‘The surgeon said he couldn’t really determine how deep the cancer had grown until he does the surgery and tries to get it all out.
‘I’ve already had to adjust my uni schedule and drop down two units because I’ve had to start working more to try and save money for this surgery.’
As for any other Aussies feeling as though their health concerns are being dismissed by doctors, Anna urged them to be strong in pursuing answers early on.
‘My spot is so much bigger now,’ she said.
‘It just makes me think, if I had have gotten it taken out all those years ago it would have been a less complicated surgery and probably wouldn’t cost me so much.’
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