Melanoma and back on the Cancer Rollercoaster

January 18, 2026 shomelanomaLeave a comment

As a two-cancer queen, I have been very fortunate to have enjoyed a long period of stability with both cancers. In many respects you can be lulled into a false sense of security, when you have gone for a long period with no progression. Unfortunately, this came to an abrupt halt recently and in fact every time I’ve started to update this blog something else has happened. To recap, I have regular 3 monthly scans for my stage 4 melanoma and in early September I was feeling well and not thinking too much about them. When I went in for my results my Oncologist informed me my CT scan was ok but the MRI scan of the brain had not yet been reported. He was not unduly concerned as he said if there was something on the scan the radiographer normally calls them.

The following week, as Dave was driving us across London en-route to his Mum’s 80^th birthday weekend, I received a call from the melanoma team to say that there was a slight change around a blood vessel on the brain scan but it was inconclusive, so they wanted to repeat the scans. As I was away for a family weekend, a more detailed scan was repeated the following week. This scan came back the same and was described as “indeterminate” so my team recommended the scans should be repeated in 6 weeks rather than the normal 12 weeks. I went away and tried to forget about it; my Mum was coming down for a week from Scotland and in early November, David and I had a much-needed week’s holiday to Spain – Malaga and Cordoba planned which I was looking forward to.

Our week in Spain was fabulous and I came back refreshed and ready for my next scans. Following the scans, I was due to catch up for the results with Prof. Larkin in the Friday clinic, however, I received a call to say that the scan report was not yet reported, so they moved my appointment to the following Monday. I didn’t think too much about this over the weekend and on the Monday morning I received a call from my Oncologist to say the scan still wasn’t reported and could I come in the following day. As it happened, I was travelling up to Scotland on that Tuesday so arrived at the hospital with my bag ready to go straight to the airport. I had a bad feeling that morning and when David and I went into the consultation Prof. Larkin told me that they did now think it was a new melanoma tumour in the brain and I would need treatment to address this. It was explained that the tumour was very small but in the temporal lobe. They were recommending SRS radiotherapy using the Cyberknife machine which targets the tumour very specifically with radiotherapy 30X the strength of a regular radiotherapy with very little damage to the surrounding cells. I would be referred to the NeuroOncologist Dr Liam Welsh the specialist consultant who would oversee this treatment.

When you receive news of progression, your overriding reaction is to want to get on with the treatment. However, both David and Prof. Larkin encouraged me to get on the flight to Scotland and go and see my Mum and family for a week as it would take some time to get everything planned and a week wouldn’t make any difference. This was the correct decision as I felt much better once I got to Scotland, watched the incredible football match of them qualifying for the World Cup and caught up with family. David also managed to come up to Scotland for the weekend which really helped update Mum with the latest news. After a week in Linlithgow and seeing family I was feeling much better and ready to tackle the situation head on.

When I arrived back in London it was back to Marsden HQ to meet Dr Liam Welsh, the NeuroOncologist. He was great and over the next 40 minutes, he talked David and I through the situation and the process that I would face and I felt very reassured. The following week, I had a preparatory session which included a mask fitting (Hannibal Lecter Style) and a 3D MRI Scan of the section of the brain. The mask fitting was particularly claustrophobic but I was assured that by the time the holes were fitted for the mouth and nose it would be easier to breathe. It took a week for the SRS radiotherapy to be programmed and it was scheduled for Friday Dec 12. I had a few sleepless nights that week and the day before the treatment I received a message to say that the session was due to last approx. 40 mins.

I arrived on the Friday morning feeling nervous but just wanting to get on with the treatment. It lasted 40 mins and whilst the mask was claustrophobic it was bearable. The cyberknife machine moved around me (like a large scanner) and I had 90’s music playing. It was tempting to have a boogie along to Madonna music pumping away but I obviously had to try and stay still. The 40 mins was over fairly quickly and painlessly and after being fully briefed on potential side effects, I was ready to leave the hospital. I was feeling ok and relieved that it was over. I had been warned that I may be feeling tired, I may have a headache and experience hair shedding in the area but it shouldn’t be noticeable.

The next day was the morning of our annual Xmas party so I set off for my Bounce (trampolining) fitness class as my Oncologist had told me that continuing with my fitness, as long as I felt well enough, could help with the fatigue that may result after the radiotherapy. I was feeling good until I noticed on the Royal Marsden patient app that the follow up appointment with Dr Welsh had been changed from a telephone appointment to an in-person appointment. This sent me into a panic as I had been told the day before I would have a follow up telephone call the following Thursday. I immediately assumed that something was wrong and something else had appeared on the MRI brain scan. David calmed me down and said I should call my nurse Nikki on the Monday and enjoy our Xmas party with all our friends. We did have a fantastic Xmas party and I tried to temporarily forgot about all of the melanoma worry to have an amazing evening.

On the Monday, I called my nurse at Marsden HQ and informed her of my concern. She called me back and said that she didn’t think there was any reason to be concerned and following the treatment, Dr Welsh preferred to see patients in person to checkup they were doing ok. This settled me, but the next day I noticed that blood tests had been added to the patient app and I had just had blood tests the week before which were all ok. I started to let my mind run away and concluded that I was being switched back to immunotherapy treatment. The next couple of days were very stressful, I didn’t sleep and was not feeling very hungry. By the time my appointment with Dr Welsh came round on Thursday morning I was very anxious. Fortunately, the appointment was early and as Dave and I arrived at the hospital I was so pleased to see my nurse Nikki who was also going to join for my appointment. When we got into the appointment Dr Welsh told me that everything had gone well with my treatment and there was nothing else had appeared on my brain scan. I felt such a relief after all of the stress of the previous week. I was booked in for a follow up scan at the end of Jan and could now go off and enjoy Xmas with family and friends. I left the Marsden with a spring in my step after all of the worry of the previous few weeks.

Whilst having a Patient App is no doubt a step forward in making things more efficient, receiving updates without context, can be very unsettling. It turns out that the additional blood test request was from my dermatologist for a specific test to determine if a rash that had developed was related to my current medication, which it was. Unbeknown to my dermatologist, the timing of the request appearing on my Patient App, came at a time of heightened stress!

In addition to melanoma, I also have primary breast cancer which was originally diagnosed in 2016. It has always taken a back seat to the melanoma and has been kept under control for the last 5 years by taking tamoxifen. However, at my last check up at the end of October I had an MRI scan which showed that the tamoxifen was no longer working and 2 new small tumours had developed in my right breast. Following discussion with my Oncologist, my drug treatment has been changed to letrozole to see if that can get it under control and we would review this in 3 months at which point if this is not working, I would probably need to have surgery. Given everything that has been going on with my melanoma which clearly presents more of a risk I have parked this at the back of my mind for now although I did decide that I needed to get myself as fit and healthy as possible in order to make the recovery from any potential surgery as good as possible if that is required. I’m hoping that over the next couple of months, following updated scans I will have a clearer plan on both the melanoma and the breast cancer.

The last few months of 2025 have been tough. After 8 years of stability with the melanoma everything was turned upside down and I was taken back to 2017 when I was originally diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. The worry, the prospect of changing drug treatments, surgery and running out of options all came firmly into focus. One afternoon when I was struggling with everything, I watched a presentation of fellow melanoma patient Jordan Moss who spoke at the last Melanoma Patient Conference about the power of the mind in helping to stay calm and focused. I have to say that this really helped me and lifted me when I was feeling stressed and anxious and did help to give me hope and I would recommend watching this to other patients who are struggling right now. David, my rockstar husband, has continued to encourage me to take one day at a time which can be challenging at times but I know it is best not to let your mind runaway with itself hard as that can be. I have spoken to other patients who have been through the same treatment and that has been really helpful plus good friends have helped to keep me distracted doing lovely things in the run up to Xmas and that has been really special.

We had a lovely Xmas and New Year in Scotland and it was so good to spend time with all of our loved ones and forget about cancer for a while. Back in London and as I publish this blog, I am feeling well and looking forward to a few days skiing with good friends in Chatel, France. Albeit getting travel insurance did, once again, test the stress levels! I have also started looking at options for Team Shomelanoma challenges for 2026 and will be back with more of that along with a health update in the next Shomelanoma blog. Thank you as always for all the incredible support over the last few months and I’ll be back with more Shomelanoma adventures soon.

Cancer · Fundraising · Living with Cancer · Melanoma

Eight Years with Stage 4 Melanoma, How Melanoma Research has Progressed

June 13, 2025June 13, 2025 shomelanomaLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I updated my blog and there’s a lot of news. I recently passed my 8-year cancerversary with stage 4 melanoma. I feel hugely grateful to Professor Larkin, my nurse Nikki Hunter and the melanoma team at The Royal Marsden Hospital without whom I would not still be here. I have also had time to reflect about the number of patients who have not been as fortunate and lost their lives to this awful cruel disease far too young. Survivor guilt is something that many stage 4 cancer patients will resonate with. Why me? Is something people often ask themselves that when first diagnosed with cancer but you also ask yourself why have the drugs managed to prolong my life for 8 years when they haven’t worked for other patients. Of course there can be several reasons, every patient is different, their cancer is different, they have a unique immune system and it is very complex. I am also aware of how quickly the current situation can change and you can never feel totally at ease with that lurking dread of the next scan just around the corner. This week we received some very sad news about a fellow stage 4 patient Luke Thomas who lost his life to melanoma. I first met Luke a couple of years ago at a Melanoma Focus parliamentary event where we were meeting MPS during Melanoma Awareness Month. I was struck by his tenacity for life, kindness, sense of humour and passion. Nothing was going to stop him and he set about doing some incredible fundraising walking around the whole coastal path of Wales and raising £60K for the charity. He was nominated for a BBC Make a Difference Award last year in the Bravery category and we spent a lovely afternoon with him and his husband Yuri at the Awards Ceremony. He was just too young and I feel so sad that melanoma has taken another young life in his prime. I am sending so much love to Yuri, his family and friends he will be very much missed.

I continue to be hugely motivated to help raise awareness of melanoma, share my patient story to help other patients and fundraise for melanoma research at The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Over the last 8 years this has given me a sense of purpose and focus to be able to give back to the incredible hospital that takes such amazing care of cancer patients.

We have just come to the end of Melanoma Awareness Month May and it has been a very busy month both for the Team Shomelanoma fundraising but also with patient advocacy events. On May 7, I went with Melanoma Focus to a parliamentary awareness event at the Houses of Parliament where we met MPs to discuss what needs to be done to help prevent melanoma cases rising in the UK plus also share my patient story. As I have been living with my stage 4 melanoma now for 8 years, I sometimes forget what it is like to hear the story for the first time. A couple of the MPs looked shocked especially when I tell them that 10 years ago someone with my prognosis would definitely not have still been here given the prognosis was on average 6 -9 months. I have to say that the MPS were very much more engaged this year and I think that Chris Bryant MP who is Chairman of Melanoma Focus and also a stage 4 patient has done a great job speaking about his melanoma in Parliament and to the media and has significantly helped raise awareness. On May 22 , David and I were invited to a Melanoma Focus Thank You Evening at St James Place Office in the City of London and the lighting up of Tower 42. This was made possible thanks to fellow Melanoma Patient Ben Whitehouse and it turned into a very special evening. The next day the BT Tower was lit up for Melanoma Awareness Month thanks to my amazing friend Johnny McQuoid and the incredible BT Team who made this possible. The Melanoma Awareness Message was reaching far and wide, spreading crucial awareness and honouring the lives of those with melanoma.

For Melanoma Awareness Month the Skipathon Challenge returned this year to raise funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. It was lovely to team up with Marie Devereaux who I met through the charity and who sadly lost her daughter Natalie at the age of 28 to melanoma a couple of years ago. She was also treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital and her family and friends have also been doing lots of fundraising challenges to help fund melanoma research and they have been doing an incredible job. Marie was amazing help recruiting schools to the skipathon challenge as her daughter was a teacher. I am also so grateful to Avis Hawkins and her colleague Katie Rose who had Christ Church and Holy Trinity Schools participating in the skipathon challenge once again plus my cousin Karina’s childrens school Widford Lodge, Chelmsford also took part and the children, parents and teachers at all the schools fully embraced and supported the challenge and raised lots of funds. Last week, I went to Holy Trinity School and was interviewed with some of the children for BBC Radio London. It was a joy to meet the children, talk to them about sun safety and how to prevent melanoma plus skip with them. If you would like to listen to the interviews they are available on BBC Sounds via the link below. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002cwwk .

A big thank you to everyone who took part and supported this year’s skipathon.

Next up for Team Shomelanoma is Scotland’s toughest trekathon – The Glencoe Challenge which is taking place on July 5 and involves trekking through the steep hills of Glencoe for 26 miles in under 12 hours. We are hoping the team can handle the steep terrain, midges and unpredictable Scottish weather and we have a team of 19 taking on the trekathon to raise further funds for melanoma research. Training is underway and I will do a full report in the next blog. If you would like to support the team here is the link and thank you as always for your support.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/shiona-ramageglencoechallenge25

The Team Shomelanoma Fundraising has now reached over £170K after we had a very generous donation from the Joyce Chapman Charitable Trust which was incredible and I have to say a massive thank you to Janet Quartly and all of the trustees.

All of the funds raised by Team Shomelanoma research funds raised go directly towards melanoma research led by Oncologist Professor James Larkin and his colleague Professor Samra Turajlic who is a Consultant Medical Oncologist and also leads the melanoma and kidney cancer research team at The Francis Crick Institute. Melanoma treatment has advanced significantly in the last 10 years when Professor James Larkin of The Royal Marsden Hospital led a global research trial that transformed the treatment of advanced melanoma. Immunotherapy treatment uses the bodies own immune system to fight the cancer. However it remains a brutal disease and unfortunately, around 50% of stage 4 patients do not respond to the current treatments and a significant number develop life-changing side effects.

Current research is focused on understanding which patients will respond to immunotherapy treatment and trying to foresee and therefore manage the side effects that can develop and include painful inflammation of the bowel, skin or lungs.

A new research project led by Professor Turajlic MANIFEST (Multomic Analysis of Immunotherapy Features Evidencing Success and Toxicity) involves 15 academic institutions and 6 NHS trusts and health boards from across the UK, working alongside 11 bioscience and technology companies. It launched in October 2024 to better understand how cancer patients respond to immunotherapies. The ambitious programme has been set up to evaluate the barriers to the success of immunotherapy in the hope that these can be addressed. It is seeking to help more patients benefit from immunotherapy treatment.

One of the issues the researchers will also look at is a lack of testable and usable biomarkers, which are the tiny molecules which can tell doctors whether someone is likely to benefit from a given drug.

Identifying these biomarkers could help in two ways – both selecting those patients who are most likely to benefit from immunotherapy but also possibly opening up new treatments, like vaccines and cell therapies.

The project will involve 3,000 patients who have already completed their treatment and then 3,000 more who are starting treatment across the UK for breast, bladder, kidney and skin cancer.

Other forms of cancer could be added as the research progresses.

There are also studies on-going to try to better understand why cancers metastasize around the body with a view to trying to identify and target particular cells to prevent this from happening.

One of the other exciting developments is the use of immunotherapy with a cancer vaccine to treat melanoma. This has shown promising results in early trials and a new global stage 3 trial is currently underway.

The melanoma trials and research conducted by The Royal Marsden Hospital and The Francis Crick Institute have national impact for patients in the UK.

In Dec 2024, I was invited to The Francis Crick Institute with David and my good friend Jen to meet with Professor Samra Turajilic and her team to discuss the melanoma research projects (outlined above) with the team and also have a tour. It was a fantastic day and we all came away feeling very impressed by the outstanding work being undertaken by the team. The Francis Crick Institute is an incredible research building and is located at Kings Cross in London. You can learn more here https://www.crick.ac.uk/research/labs/samra-turajlic and they also have regular talks for the public to educate on all of the various research work being undertaken.

Outside of the melanoma world David and I have recently been lucky to spend some time in France recently. As many of you know I spent a year at university in Aix en Provence as part of the Erasmus Exchange Scheme while I was at the University of Glasgow. Returning to Aix I could hardly believe it was over 30 years ago that I had spent a year there it is a very special place with many happy memories. We also had a long weekend trip to Nantes with my cousin Catriona and her husband Callum which was wonderful and I had to pinch myself that here I was being able to make more special memories with family and friends 8 years on from when I didn’t expect to still be here for 3 months far less 8 years.