If you were to die tomorrow from a disease you know you could have prevented how would you feel?

That’s what my husband faced. He faced it better than I would have, but he did face it.

Isn’t it so much easier just to protect yourself and never have to go through this?

Now, of course, many people who don’t protect themselves may never get skin cancer. And certainly, you can roll the dice, if you wish. And I don’t mean to make myself out to be perfect, but there are certain things I do regularly so that it has become natural for me and I don’t have to remember to do it. It’s automatic. And, by the way, I was never this careful or disciplined before my husband died of skin cancer. That tragedy was an unfortunate motivator.

But maybe you could use me as your motivator, knowing a little bit about what my husband, Jerry, went through and what I went through as his wiife.

From the moment he was diagnosed to the day he died 6 years later, I had my heart in my mouth. I was in a quiet panic, sometimes not so quiet. I did everything I could for him, starting with researach for doctors and hospitals to treatments and calling anyone I knew who had experience with skin cancer for advice.

I was careful not to have us socialize with anyone who had even the slighest cold. It might compromise his immune system.

Right off the bat he had a very bad diagnosis. I knew one day in the not too distant future it would take his life. I had never gone through death before like I knew I would have to with him. And I was panicked about that, too.

And I loved him. Everything he had to go through was hell for him, and a different kind of hell for me.

And then there was what would become false hope…a new drug, in trials. Could that save him? He tried it. He tried everything suggested. He was a trooper.

But in the end he died. And for what? Skin cancer…a disease that can be prevented.

I hope you check yourself once a month after reading this. I hope if you see a mole that doesn’t look right or a sore that doesn’t heal, you’ll make an appointment with your dermatologist and not let it wait.

I hope you will take the opportunity my husband didn’t take, and that’s to use sunscreen, and reapply it liberally every two hours if you swim or sweat and wear a wide-brimmed hat and don’t bake in the sun or at a tanning salon (he never saw the inside of a tanning salon but 3 million people a year do). In short, I hope you choose to save yourself. Only you can do it.