Anna Rowe first noticed a lump the size of a small pimple on her forehead in 2021. After months of complaints from her father, she went to a doctor to get it checked out.
Three years later, the 24-year-old college student now faces expensive surgery to remove what turned out to be skin cancer.
The idea that the lump was cancerous had never occurred to Anna, as she thought that skin cancers appeared as “moles” and that she had not been a “tanning person” growing up.
Even though her first doctor suspected the lump was cancerous in 2021, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that she was scheduled to have it removed.
Incredibly, many doctors were worried about removing the stain because of the scarring.
Anna said she felt doctors dismissed her concerns and regrets not pushing harder to have the spot removed when it was first detected.
“The first doctor I went to didn’t do any tests to see if the lump was cancerous, but he looked at it and thought it was cancer,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘His solution was to burn it, so he tried to do that several times.
‘He made me come back every week to try to burn it for six weeks.
“Obviously, I just trusted 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 her skin cancer grow before she finally received a diagnosis.
Continued attempts to “burn off” the spot resulted in damage to Anna’s skin, which frustrated her even more.
“He kept saying, ‘We’ll try it one more time, just one more time and it will work. “It’s almost over,” Anna said.
“I basically had to fight him and just leave his office because I knew it just wasn’t working.”
Although Anna had given up on “burning off” the spot, she was still determined to undergo tests to determine if it was cancerous and have it removed.
“After the first doctor I went to a clinic specializing in skin cancer and they did a biopsy there,” he said.
‘I’m not sure if the doctor did the biopsy wrong or if they took the sample from the wrong place because the test didn’t show anything.
“I was relieved and they gave me this cream to make the stain go away.”
Rowe used the cream until it ran out and continued to monitor the site for the next year while studying abroad.
Many doctors refused to approve surgery to remove Ms Rowe’s suspicious spot because it would cause scarring.
When he returned to Australia, he decided to visit the clinic again because the spot had increased in size.
“They ignored me and said everything was fine because they had already done a biopsy,” Anna said.
“The doctor did nothing except assure me that it would go away on its own.”
It wasn’t until Anna saw two other doctors who had a second biopsy that found the spot to be cancerous.
A major barrier she faced was that doctors refused to surgically remove the spot due to its potential for scarring.
“I just wanted it cut off and no one would let me do it,” Mrs Rowe said.
“Everyone said he was too young and wouldn’t want a scar on his forehead.
“I would rather have a scar than cancer.
“I just can’t understand why medical professionals put vanity before my health.”
Anna moved to Melbourne to complete her master’s degree in translation and it was there that she found the doctor who finally took her concerns seriously.
“I noticed that in the last few months the spot had started to grow quite quickly and also started to be painful,” he said.
“It was funny because when I was diagnosed with cancer I wasn’t stressed, but rather relieved that someone was finally listening to me.”
Ms Rowe’s spot began to grow rapidly and become more painful after she moved to Melbourne to complete her master’s degree.
The doctor has scheduled Anna to have surgery to remove the cancer in three weeks.
However, he faces having to delay the procedure because it costs $6,000, money he simply does not have.
“I don’t know, but I hope I don’t have to delay it,” Mrs. Rowe said.
“It just depends on the funds.”
A group of Ms Rowe’s “amazing” colleagues at the Chadstone Hotel have started a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of your surgery and recovery.
It is not yet known how extensive the surgery will be, as doctors will only be able to understand the extent of the cancer once Anna is in surgery.
“From what I understood at the consultation, I’ll probably have about a week or a week and a half off work and then I’ll have follow-up appointments to get the stitches removed to make sure I’m recovering,” he said.
‘The surgeon said he couldn’t really determine how deep the cancer had grown until he performed surgery and tried to remove it completely.
“I already had to adjust my college schedule and drop two units because I had to start working more to try to save money for this surgery.”
As for other Australians who feel doctors are ignoring their health concerns, Anna urged them to be assertive in seeking answers from the start.
“My place is a lot bigger now,” he said.
“It just makes me think, If I had it removed all those years ago, it would have been a less complicated surgery and probably wouldn’t have cost me as much.’