39-Year-Old Mom Battling Stage 4 Melanoma Gets Real About Underestimating Skin Cancer

After feeling what she suspected was a lump in her breast, she went to the doctor for a checkup and then underwent a precautionary biopsy.

When the results came back, Hunt was in shock: It was malignant melanoma, the doctor said — and the cancer had already spread to other parts of her body, including her lungs.

Nearly 10 years prior, the Florida mom was told she had basal cell carcinoma, the most common (and least risky) form of skin cancer. Luckily, she beat it and took the whole experience as a sign to ditch her tanning bed habit for good. She also became diligent about making annual trips to the dermatologist to have her skin checked, just in case.

But aside from that, Hunt admits that she didn't change her routine too dramatically when it came to sun protection — a decision she now sorely regrets.

"I got my annual skin checks so that was always in the back of my mind like a crutch," she recently told Good Morning America. "But I learned in all of this that there is an occurrence where you do not have melanoma appear on the skin. I never knew that was even possible."

After all, the very topic of skin care safety is tangled in a confusing web of information — especially in the US.

In May, a poll conducted by the American Academy of Dermatology revealed that an alarming number of Americans remain unaware and/or uneducated about basic sun protection guidelines. According to the survey, 80% of respondents said they knew sunscreen should be applied every two hours when outdoors but only 33% actually follow through with this regularly. Another 42% said they don't really reapply sun block at all or only apply it after they become wet.

You can find some of the most outdated sun protection products in the world in local American drugstores. On Thursday, the FDA said it is finally beginning to update the way it regulates sunscreens, an effort to bring them in line with 21st century science https://t.co/bpB4hSHSLV

— WIRED (@WIRED) February 23, 2019

There's also the matter of what's actually in the sun block we use. The Food and Drug Administration has only recently begun updating its regulations on sunscreen ingredients, which have lagged behind the rest of the world for years. As a result, many of the common sunscreens we buy for ourselves and our kids still contain potentially harmful chemicals — not just for people but also for the environment.

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Only 3% of cases occur in patients where the melanoma has already spread to another site within the body by the time it's discovered, according to GMood Morning America.

"One day you wake up and your life is one way and the next day you wake up and your life is totally different," she said. "I remember being shocked and confused and I got angry and thought, 'How did my body fail me?'"

Because of the advanced stage her cancer was in, Hunt immediately jumped into treatment just a few weeks after being diagnosed. Since July 2020, she has regularly made the long, four-hour journey from her home in Titusville to Tampa, Florida, to undergo immunotherapy treatments.

So far, they're working.

Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes — another rarity which reportedly happens to just less than 1% of immunotherapy patients.

"Everything in my case is rare and the exception," Hunt explains.

In her case, she was laid off just two days before she received her cancer diagnosis, which suddenly left her rudderless.

But in response, she decided not to let it all beat her down.

"When I was first diagnosed, I started searching the internet for information and all I could find were just grave statistics," Hunt shared about her desperate need to learn more about what had happened to her — and why.

Along the way, she learned an incredible amount of information she wishes she'd been armed with sooner. And soon after that, she launched a blog, Love & Sunblock.

"I started blogging about my journey because I wanted to be that person for someone else in the future," she told Good Morning America. "That person that I was desperately trying to find."

Even now, many years later, she can vividly remember spending hours at the beach as a young kid, failing to reapply sunscreen. As a result, she was left with painful sunburns that should have served as a warning.

"I even remember missing school because of sunburns," she said. "I was on my way to becoming a melanoma statistic and had no idea."

Years later, in her teens and 20s, she spent way more time than she should have in tanning beds, doing anything she could do get rid of her pale white skin. Little did she know she was causing the very thing that is now threatening to take her life.

And she's making sure her 14-year-old daughter does too.

Now, whenever she heads into the strong Florida sun, Hunt never fails to cover her skin thoroughly with long sleeves and pants, even if she's just running to get the mail. She keeps a diligent skin care routine and knows what she's looking for when she's reading sunscreen labels.

The sad truth of it, Hunt said, is that skin cancer is "almost always preventable," and yet it still affects 1 in 5 Americans during their lifetime.

"Sun protection has got to become a habit and it’s got to start with your kids," she urged parents.

According to Eroglu, "time is of the essence" when it comes to catching skin cancer. Make it a point to go to the dermatologist "early and often," to prevent a more serious diagnosis from developing.

Picking the right sunscreen is also hugely important. Eroglu said to always go for a broad spectrum sunscreen (this will block UVA and UVB rays) that has an SPF of 30 or higher. (You can also head to the Environmental Working Group's list of safe sunscreens to ensure you buy one that doesn't have any harmful ingredients lurking inside.)

Avoiding the sun when it's at its strongest (which you can read about at this site) will also help, as will performing regular skin checks on yourself and your children.

It's certainly helped that family and friends have rallied around her this past year, including with a GoFundMe campaign that's helping to cover her mounting medical costs. So far, the page has raised upward of $30,000, though it has an overall goal of raising $100,000.

In the meantime, Hunt hopes that by continuing to share her story and to debunk skin cancer myths, she can help prevent more young people from going through the same painful experience she's facing.

"I want people to know the things that I didn’t know," she told Good Morning America. "I can say for myself that having to fight for your life due to something so superficial as being tan, that's a really tough pill to swallow at the end of the day."