Melanoma scare: Transport minister Dean Nalder has skin cancer removed

Source: Perth Now, May 2015

TRANSPORT Minister Dean Nalder grew up on a farm in an era when “no-one wore sunscreen”, and now he has been diagnosed with melanoma.
Mr Nalder said a routine skin check had uncovered the melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, which first appeared as a black mole on his back.

It was removed by skin specialists last Sunday and he faced an anxious week before being told that all of the cancer had been removed.

“When we first discovered it, the dermatologist suggested that I should be fine because we got it early but it did make us think about life a bit,” he said.

“It reminded me again of how fragile life can be.”

Not that Mr Nalder needed reminding about the fragility of life. The Liberal MP’s father, Cambell, died of bowel cancer at the age of 49.

“Ironically, my father was 49 years and 82 days when he died,” Mr Nalder said. “I was diagnosed with a melanoma at 49 years and 87 days.

“I had been reflecting on how I had just passed the age at which my father had died.

“Because of my genetics I have a high probability that I could get bowel cancer, so it is something I am very much aware of.”

Mr Nalder said he and wife Colette “would deal with” whatever challenges life threw up.

“We have already had some shocks in our lives,” he said.

“With the melanoma, we just sat back and said, ‘What does this mean?’

“And then we quickly decided to get on with it and deal with it.

“We plan to get on with living.”