I am a 52 year old healthy woman who loves the sun. I do not have any sun damage and take very good care of my skin. My mother in law noticed this tiny little black spot (the size of a pencil point) on my lower back. Three months later I had it checked out by a Dermatologist. She said it looked small but had to be removed for biopsy. Three weeks later I get a call from pathology telling me I have a malignant level 2 melanoma. I was very scared and shocked. They scheduled me for surgery three days later and cut out a very large margin of tissue. If it had been left without any fast procedure outpatient surgery. I think my problem would have been way more in depth of procedure to get this in control. My advice to all of you who are just looking for an answer here on this site is: Get It Removed!

I am 57 years old and have spent a lot of my life in the sun. I've always had moles here and there. A couple of months ago I went to my GP to burn off a few "pre-cancer" crusties here and there. He froze some other moles and then circled one with a pen and told me to keep an eye on this one and if it starts growing he'll biopsy it. It was small, about the size of a sharpened crayon and dark brown. Not weird shape or anything, just a darker mole. Well it didn't really grow so I told him I wanted it removed. Got a call a couple of days ago, malignant Melanoma. I have another visit to the doctor tomorrow to find out the next steps. I'm a little bit frightened, but we'll see what happens.

I am 28, and I got diagnosed with melanoma about three weeks ago. I got great news yesterday that they got it all out, and all I can tell anyone of you all is to pray and have faith in God and ask Him to heal your body and rebuke the melanoma as you never have had it. You all will be just fine. Love your Lord always, and trust in Him and in the name of Jesus.

I am 44 years old. I have been seeing a dermatologist for more than 20 years for acne and moles. I think I was 22 when I had my first set of moles removed. I have had about 25 removed over the years, and this year, after taking two more, one came back malignant melanoma. I returned for a cut of a bigger area around to make sure they have it all. The doctor is very, very positive that she did. We shall wait and see. I will be back to have four or five more removed; they are changing all the time. My advice is to make sure your doctor takes every precaution; it's not worth the risk.

I never had any visible melanomas of my skin, but one was found in my lung when I hurt my back and had a CT scan. It was surgically removed, and I had chemo. It has now been three years without any problems.

I am a 30-year-old mother of three. Last summer, I had a mole checked that grew from a small mole that was pink on my stomach to a large blackish-brown mole that bled and oozed in little over a year. I had it taken off at my family doctor's office. It came back positive for melanoma. I went through a surgery to remove a large section of my stomach and then a second one because a lymph node biopsy detected it spread up to my armpit. I had all of my lymph nodes taken out of my armpit. I did one aggressive month of chemo (interferon) and am doing 11 more months of treatment. So far, so good.

About 10 years ago, a mole on the back of my thigh was biopsied and came back negative. The mole was not removed, and two years later, it began to grow and bleed. It then was biopsied and found to be melanoma. I endured a year of interferon and had no problems for eight years. This July, I found a lump in the same area. A PET scan showed that was the only hot spot. I had the node removed, and it was negative. I then began a clinical trial with a vaccine made from my tumor. Here I am six months later with two new lumps. One has been biopsied and is melanoma. I have had any and all moles removed completely.