FOR months, teenager Abi Marie Dean ignored her blurry vision.
The aspiring hairdresser didn’t tell her father, Martin, and delayed visiting an ophthalmologist due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
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Two years later, at age 18, Abi died after the rare form of melanoma that was causing her vision problems spread.
Now heartbroken dad Martin is begging other parents to make sure their children’s eyes are checked regularly – telling Sun Health: “If she had told us three months earlier, maybe the treatment would have worked.”
Abi’s death in September last year came as a shock to her small town of Oxted, Surrey, where local residents have already raised more than £10,000 for the Young Lives VS Cancer charity, which supported the young woman in her final months. life.
Martin, 40, plasterer, says: “She had melanoma in her eye. I had never heard of it before.
“Most times in life you say, ‘I learned from this, let’s not do it again.’ Sometimes in life, you don’t get the chance to fix things. That’s the hardest thing as a parent. From baby to teenager I protected Abi, she was my absolute life, all my children are.
“Having it go out of my control, not being able to do anything and watch it unfold, was very difficult.
“Probably nine times out of ten, you just need glasses. But never take it risk, because you never know what’s coming. The quicker you find any cancer, the better your chances of removing it.”
Changes in vision can affect much more than vision, including a brain tumor, stroke or diabetes.
A study conducted in 2023 found that a third of parents of children aged six to 15 prioritized appointments with doctors and dentists over ophthalmologists. But 97 percent wish they had detected telltale signs of eye problems sooner.
It is not uncommon for children to also mask vision problems.
Martin, who has been with partner Kirsty, 40, for 12 years, remembers the day Abi told him about her blurry vision “like it was yesterday”.
He says: “She said she could barely see anything and I got a bit angry with her. I said, ‘Why didn’t you say anything? How much can you see? And she said, ‘Not much.’”
Abi – sister to Cameron, 22, Skye, 18, and ten-year-old Jay – went to the ophthalmologist in late summer 2021, four months after her vision started to change.
This led to the diagnosis of choroidal melanoma, a rare type in the melanoma family of cancers, which affects the back of the eye.
Abi otherwise ‘100 percent healthy’
Martin says: “The doctors said there was a 96 percent chance the radiotherapy would work. At that time, we jumped on it.
Abi, otherwise “100 percent healthy”, underwent five days of radiotherapy.
The disease is uncommon in young people, but statistics suggest that around 50% of patients die due to the spread of cancer.
Reassured by doctors, her loved ones say there appeared to be no urgency in Abi’s care.
However, she began to complain of pain in her eyes and loss of vision. Martin recalls: “It was Abi who said, ‘I want to keep an eye out.’
“It was then that they realized how serious the cancer had become, despite being told there was nothing to worry about.”
After Abi’s eye was removed and replaced with a glass one in June 2022, tests revealed the cancer was more serious than previously thought and had spread to the 17-year-old’s lungs.
Abi, who studied hairdressing at college, participated in a clinical trial of Tebentafusp, a medicine used to treat skin melanoma.
The results showed a huge reduction in cancer and were seen as nothing short of a miracle when Abi turned 18.
Unfortunately, tests in January 2023 revealed new tumors and doctors warned the family they had no options.
‘It was a slow progression’
Three months later it was decided that Abi would receive palliative care at home.
It was incomprehensible to Abi, who felt fine and was just starting to enjoy life at 18, going to nightclubs and spending time with her friends and boyfriend, Thomas Muscio. Martin says: “If you didn’t know Abi you wouldn’t know she had cancer. It was a slow progression.”
That summer, Abi began to feel pain in her legs. Her condition worsened over three months when she stopped walking.
Martin says: “With what I know now, I would tell others, bold and strong, to pay attention from the beginning. Lose your eyes and not your life. This is something we regret. We just left our trust in doctors.”
For the last six weeks of her life, Abi was at the Royal Marsden in Kensington, London. When she died, the cancer had spread to her legs, breasts, spine, face and several other areas.
Martin says: “It still makes me angry. They never made us feel like it could take her life.
“It was always, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ Definitely in the later stages, Abi knew she wouldn’t survive. Deep down I knew there was no more treatment, and when I spoke to the doctors they told me that Abi knew it too.”
Martin adds: “Abi was one in a million. She had a big heart and was very family oriented.
“There aren’t many girls who have their head on their shoulders like she does.
“My son gives me strength to continue. The only thing Abi said to me was, ‘Make sure you give Jay the life you gave me.’”
What is melanoma, what are the symptoms and how to prevent it?
Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer that tends to spread throughout the body.
It is diagnosed 16,000 times a year and tragically claims the lives of 2,340 people each year.
The number of people diagnosed with melanoma is rising and it is the fifth most common type of cancer in the UK.
But it is also one of the most preventable cancers, with 86 per cent of cases preventable in the UK.
The best way to protect yourself from melanoma is to protect yourself from the sun – use SPF every day, wear a hat and sunglasses, and stay out of the sun in the hottest hours. It is also advisable to avoid sun loungers.
People with fair skin, blue or green eyes, blond or red hair, and a large number of freckles or moles are more likely to develop skin cancer.
Surgery is the main treatment for melanoma, especially if it is detected early. This will involve removing the affected skin tissue.
Radiation therapy, medications, and chemotherapy are also sometimes used to try to stop the cancer from growing. Treatment depends on the severity of the disease.
What are the symptoms?
The main thing to watch for is changes to an existing wart or a new skin wart.
Most experts recommend using the simple “ABCDE” rule to look for symptoms of melanoma skin cancer, which can appear anywhere on the body.
There are five letters/words to remember:
- Asymmetrical – melanomas usually have two very different halves and are irregular in shape
- Border – melanomas usually have a notched or irregular border
- Wcolors – melanomas are usually a mixture of two or more colors
- Ddiameter – most melanomas are usually more than 6 mm in diameter
- ANDenlargement or elevation – a mole that changes size over time is more likely to be melanoma
A mole that changes size, shape or color could be melanoma.
But other signs to look out for include spots that are:
- Swollen and painful
- Bleeding
- Prickly
- Hard
How deadly is this?
Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer.
A person’s illness outlook depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed.
Survival is better for women than men.
“We don’t know exactly why this happens. It may be because women are more likely to see a doctor about their melanoma at an earlier stage,” says Cancer Research UK.
The charity says that overall, statistics show that in England, more than 85 in every 100 people (more than 85 per cent) will survive melanoma for 10 years or more after being diagnosed.
- Around 100 per cent in England diagnosed with stage 1 melanoma – when cancer cells are only in the top layer of skin – will survive for five years or more after diagnosis.
- About 70% live another five years when they are diagnosed at stage 3, which is when the cancer starts to spread to nearby lymph nodes.
- In stage 4, when melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, nearly 30% survive the cancer for 5 years or more.
Cancer Research says stage 4 data does not take age differences into account. Age can affect outlook and young people have a better prognosis than older people.
Age can affect outlook and young people have a better prognosis than older people.
What is melanoma?
Melanocytes are skin cells that give us skin color because they produce a pigment known as melanin.
When you expose yourself to the sun, melanocytes produce more pigment (tan), which spreads to other skin cells to protect them from the sun’s rays.
But melanocytes are also where cancer starts.
Too much UV causes sunburn and this is a sign of damage to the skin’s DNA.
UV radiation triggers changes in melanocytes, which causes the genetic material to become defective and cause abnormal cell growth.
People who burn easily are at greater risk of skin cancer because their cells don’t produce as much pigment to protect the skin.
Those with albinism are at greater risk because their skin does not produce any pigment.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
