Cancer is the undesired acquaintance few chance to meet more than once. Christine Pannier has held an audience with the disease no less than three times in just five years.
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Her battle begin four years ago, with a melanoma on her leg.
“It wasn’t too much of an issue, I had the surgery, they cut if off and then I was done with it,” said the 69-year-old.
Ms Pannier is grateful for that incident though, because it led her to be tested for other cancers, which ultimately saved her life.
“When I was having the melanoma looked at, a bowel cancer kit turned up in the mail, and I said to my husband ‘oh don’t worry about it, I have enough to deal with right now’, and he said, ‘no, you’ll do the test’,” Ms Pannier recalls.
“I sent it back and within a few days they were calling me to say I had bowel cancer too.”
The months of treatment for this cancer was far more invasive than the first.
“The chemo was the worst part, much worse than the surgery. The recovery was the hardest,” said Ms Pannier.
Once cleared of the second cancer and having recovered her usual form and energy, Ms Pannier dared to re-enter her daily life without fear of relapse.
But, earlier this year she again found herself with another diagnosis. The melanoma had returned aggressively, this time attacking her body’s more sensitive tissue.
“We found a lump in my groin and it was growing quickly,” she said.
“It was 17mm when we found it but in about seven weeks before the surgery, it grew to 70mm. It was big, long, I could feel it and it had moved very quickly.
“The one on my ankle was a mole, they never really told me how big it was, I’d say about the size of a cent. But this one [in my groin] was very different.”
To slow its progress, Ms Pannier was placed on an immunotherapy trial. It will continue for the next nine years, requiring that she commit to regular CT scans every three months.
On May 1, Ms Pannier travelled to the state capital to have the lump removed.
“They told me if I can’t have the immunotherapy, it’d be very serious.”
Now, six months in the clear, Ms Pannier is thankful for the experiences that have led her to the present.
“I suppose I’m very lucky, for the treatment and for the many beautiful people who have helped me,” she said.
Yet, Ms Pannier admits, much of her recent pain might have been avoided if she had just made different choices in youth.
“They asked me if I sunbathed a lot,” she said.
“I didn’t think I did, but I suppose in those days, I’d go outside once a week with baby lotion on to catch the sun.
“If I had to do it again, it’d be different now. I’d cover up, I’d take precautions.”
