Anita Fanning was only 32 when she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 1998.
"Being diagnosed [with skin cancer] was a huge shock. I wouldn't be a sun worshipper and I always put this kind of thing down to people who baked themselves in the sun," says Fanning.
When she initially noticed a pimple-like growth on her hand, she took no notice. It was only a few months later when she took her baby daughter for routine injections that her GP noticed and advised her to see a consultant dermatologist.
"Nobody, including myself, was worried. I got an appointment in June and at this point it was probably the size of the nail on my index finger and looked like a wart. It was only sore when it caught on something, but when it did the pain brought you to your knees. But it was horrible, really ugly. They thought it was a wart or a ganglia, nothing serious," says Fanning.
Once it was removed by the dermatologist under local anaesthetic, the melanoma was sent for lymph node biopsy.
"When it came back he [the dermatologist] said it wasn't good, it was malignant melanoma. The bad news was they didn't get it all," she says.
Fanning was sent to the Charlemont Clinic in Dublin where they removed the rest, including some of the nerve to which it was attached.
"I then went to an oncologist. He said you're far too young to have this and we need to treat it aggressively. I agreed. I told him I had two small children and that I wanted to see them grown up and basically that I didn't have time to be sick."
She underwent a year of immunotherapy which left her tired, with no appetite, aches, pains and fever. However, to date the cancer has not reappeared.
"People don't realise. When you're a woman and you see a lump on your breast or when you're a man and you find something on your testicle you get it checked out straight away.
"I watched this grow for six months before I did anything.
"Life goes on but I do take extra precautions. When I holiday it's in April or October, I'll be using 50 plus sun cream and I stay in the shade.
"I've been lucky once, and I don't know that I'd be lucky a second time," Fanning says.