Peters Township cancer survivor raises awareness to melanoma
With Memorial Day in the rearview mirror and warm, sunny days ahead, pools will be open, and we’ll be spending more time outdoors. That means it’s sunscreen season (not that you shouldn’t wear it year-round) and time to pay extra attention to potentially dangerous sun damage to your skin.
Jessica Rogowicz of Peters Township learned the hard way by battling melanoma three times.
“I’m 42, so I think growing up that there wasn’t much awareness around being safe in the sun,” says Rogowicz. “I think many people still believe that skin cancer is not deadly, and I think that was my mindset at the time. I really enjoyed being tan and I looked better when I was tan. I took the risk and wasn’t always conscientious about wearing sunscreen.”
She usually vacationed one week a year at the beach and would apply sunscreen once in the morning and forget about it.
“The thought of damaging my skin was just such a foreign concept to me,” she adds. “My parents tried to tell me that tanning beds weren’t good for you, but my friends did it. It was what you did back then.”
She visited tanning beds occasionally in high school and college and then more often in her 20s. One day Rogowicz noticed a very dark, flat mole on her back. She wasn’t worried about it and was shocked when she received a followup call saying it was melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer that develops when cells that produce pigment in skin start to grow out of control. Melanoma can spread to other parts of the body and is deadly if not treated or detected early.
“I was just a few days away from turning 25 and I was getting this news that I had a cancer diagnosis,” Rogowicz recalls. She found it early and it had not spread to her lymph nodes, so she thought she was in the clear until four years later when another mole turned out to be melanoma. Again, she caught it early and required no further treatment.
She went on to have two children and, after 11 years of being careful in the sun, wearing sunscreen and hats to protect her skin and having regular skin checks with doctors, melanoma reared its head for a third time.
“I made the call when I saw something even if I wasn’t scheduled for a followup appointment,” says Rogowicz. “My doctors do an amazing job of checking me over when I go, but this was something I spotted. I made the call, and we got it, so I think just really self-advocating is so key.”
Now, the wife and mother of three works to raise awareness about melanoma and connect with others who have been impacted by the disease. She formed the Pittsburgh Melanoma Foundation (PMF) in 2012 with a mission to raise melanoma awareness in the Pittsburgh area through prevention and early detection. PMF is run by volunteers who have all been personally impacted by melanoma, including survivors, caretakers, health-care workers, and family and friends of those who have battled it.
Protect your skin
The best way to protect yourself from skin cancer is to protect your skin from the sun.
When it comes to choosing a sunscreen, use a product that protects against both UVA and UVB rays and be sure to apply about 30 minutes before going outside. Make sure to reapply every two hours and more frequently if you go swimming.
“I have two active kids, and I am in the sun a good bit,” says Rogowicz. “But there are just different measures you can take such as wearing a hat or being in the shade when you’re outside if you don’t need to be directly in the sun.”
The other way to stay safe is to keep an eye on your skin, watch for any moles that may be new, very dark in color, change color or have varied color or grow rapidly. If you notice anything concerning, see a doctor right away and don’t ignore it.
Running for research
When Jessica was diagnosed with melanoma a second time, she and her husband had just started running regularly. That gave her the idea to start a 5K run through the PMF to raise money for melanoma research and to raise awareness about the disease and how to protect your skin.
“I have a co-director who lost her dad to melanoma, and so it is a big undertaking, and we work together,” says Rogowicz. “The first year in 2012, we had a little over 600 people in attendance. And I just thought to myself, I’ve taken something very traumatic and done my part to turn it around.”
The race and foundation also serve as a way for people who are facing or who have been through melanoma and their loved ones to connect with one another and offer support. Since 2012, PMF has donated $505,000 to melanoma research and awareness programs happening in Pittsburgh with last year’s 5K drawing 1,700 runners.
This year, the 5K run will be on Saturday, June 14, in South Park. To register and find more information about the organization, visit melanomapgh.org/.