Melanoma is on the rise and young people aren’t using enough sunscreen, doctors say – CTV
May 16, 2025
TORONTO — When Christie Garofalo’s husband asked her about a mole on her abdomen, she thought she’d always had it.
But after looking through old photos, she realized it was relatively recent and made an appointment with her family doctor just to be safe.
After the mole was removed and biopsied, she was shocked when her doctor told her it was melanoma.
“I collapsed in her office because you hear cancer and immediately you go down a terrible rabbit hole,” said the 50-year-old mother of five children in Vancouver.
Garofalo said she had used sunscreen but “not religiously” — applying it if she was on a tropical vacation but not on a day-to-day basis at home.
While talking with her oncologist, she also remembered that she had used tanning beds once a week as a teen in the late 1980s.
Garofalo had to undergo some painful lymph node surgery to prevent the cancer from spreading, but is grateful she has a clean bill of health almost five years later.
