I thought melanoma was just a mole but now I have tumours on my heart and I won’t see my daughter grow up. This is the one ‘slight’ symptom that I shouldn’t have ignored…

Victoria Hudson-Craig He was only 33 years old when he noticed a strange mole on his shoulder, but several doctors did not give it importance.

The mole changed shape several times and alarm bells started ringing in May 2013 when it started bleeding down Victoria’s back.

It’s been 11 years and Victoria now has five tumors in her heart.

Tragically, doctors have told Victoria that her rare form of melanoma is incurable.

The young mother told FEMAIL she was “terrified” that her six-year-old daughter would grow up without her and never imagined a small mole and irregular heartbeat would be the only symptoms of what was to come.

“I was on vacation with my sister and she noticed the mole was bleeding,” Victoria said.

“I went back to see another doctor, who told me I needed it removed immediately, which was the polar opposite of all the medical advice I had received before.”

The following month, the mole was removed and it was formally diagnosed as stage 2b melanoma.

“I was surprised at first, I hadn’t actually heard much about it as I grew up in the UK. It wasn’t a commonly known cancer to me,” Victoria said.

Doctors made more excisions in Victoria’s back and left shoulder to check if the disease had spread to the surrounding tissue, but found nothing at the time.

‘I was told it could still be in my bloodstream and be undetectable. But there was nothing else to do at this point,” Victoria said.

In 2015, Victoria moved to New Zealand and finally gave birth to her daughter, Ruby, in 2017.

“The original melanoma in 2013 sent me to a dark place,” he said.

‘I moved to New Zealand to take a break from life and re-evaluate what was important to me.

‘I met my husband six months later and ended up staying here, and I’ve tried to live in the moment more. I am very aware that time is of the essence.”

Victoria felt sharp pain in her abdomen in October 2020 and was rushed to hospital with appendicitis.

‘While the hospital was preparing me to have my appendix removed, they did a scan to check that it was indeed my appendix causing the pain.

“The radiologist’s hand slipped and accidentally explored the bottom of my heart, where two tumors were visible.”

Victoria remembered the doctor’s wide-eyed expression.

Several tests later, the mother was diagnosed with four tumors in her heart: three around the bottom of the muscle and one in the middle.

‘They thought the melanoma had come back, but it didn’t look much like a melanoma. The doctors said it seemed unusual and they couldn’t really identify it.

After the inconclusive findings, doctors sent Victoria’s test results to overseas colleagues in the hope that someone could diagnose her.

Papworth Hospital in the UK conducted an analysis that showed the tumors were more likely than anything else to be the result of melanoma.

“I was then treated for stage 4 melanoma and started immunotherapy for nine months, but it was ineffective.”

Victoria was stunned by the diagnosis, especially considering she had no other obvious symptoms.

The mother remembered slight heart palpitations, but at the time she was also going through early menopause and believed it was due to her hormonal changes.

“The cancer was progressing and doctors also found a fifth tumor in my heart in December 2021. The week before Christmas, doctors told me that all five tumors had grown and the largest was 6cm.”

Victoria had to look for alternative treatments when she realized immunotherapy had no hope of working.

He started taking BRAF inhibitor medications and paid for them out of pocket because the medication was not funded by the government.

Four months later, a miracle occurred: Victoria’s tumors had shrunk by 30 percent, and the following months showed a similar pattern of shrinkage.

However, the medication has affected Victoria’s quality of life and caused serious anxiety about her health, with even a simple stomach virus having to be examined by her doctor.

“There’s always the possibility that it wasn’t just something I ate, but that the pills were masking the cancer and other symptoms,” he said.

He also regularly suffered from high fevers and fatigue, so he couldn’t even get out of bed for days at a time.

Something that helps Victoria get through everyday life is trying to see life through her daughter’s eyes.

‘She knows there is something wrong with my heart and that I take medication for it. But she doesn’t understand what cancer is or what that means. She doesn’t know it’s incurable.

“We try to tell him what we think he can take on without creating too much anxiety.”

Victoria’s main goal is to spend as much time as possible with her family while she can, creating positive memories and experiences for her young daughter.

‘The future is very uncertain and one of the things that breaks my heart the most is knowing that she will grow up without me.

“I hope we spend a lot of time together, but I’m scared it will come to an end before it’s ready.”

Victoria said her husband, Ryan, has been her support throughout her health journey thanks to his calm and kind demeanor.

“It is also terrifying for him to know that at some point he will be a single father. Sometimes I don’t know how he deals with it, but he is very strong and loving.

Currently, Victoria’s medicine only keeps tumors stable.

Doctors suspect that if Victoria’s tumors continue to grow, they will lead to heart failure.

‘I have scans every three months to make sure they are stable and I need to keep taking the medication for as long as I can. I’m not sure what we’ll do if it stops working.

“At the moment there is no widespread treatment, so we may have to look for more experimental treatments abroad.”

You can donate to the fund to help pay for Victoria’s medications. here.