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Queensland project manager Tracey Sims is a survivor who has been put through the wringer over the past six years. Back in 2018, Ms Sims went to the doctor because she had a watery eye. She was told it was just a blocked tear duct.

However, while she was undergoing a minor operation to fix the blocked duct, the surgeon found a tumour. Queensland project manager Tracey Sims is pictured wearing the prosthetic eye she was fitted with after losing her left eye to cancer. (Supplied: Tracey Sims) Ms Sims was diagnosed with a type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, which was treated with radiation.



Three years later, Ms Sims was told at an annual check-up that the cancer had returned. Ms Sims said her mind immediately went to the worst possible scenario. "I was thinking the cancer was right throughout my body," she said.

"I thought, 'I'm too young for this. I've got kids, they're going get married and have kids. I'm not going to be here in six months.

'" "I was handed over to the surgeon who sat me down and said, 'We need to take your eye.'" To Ms Sims, the news actually came as a relief. "I said, 'So that's it.

You're taking my eye. I thought that is OK." Ms Sims had her eye, eye socket and part of her cheekbone removed with surgery, and a skin flap was fashioned to cover the cavity left behind.

Chemotherapy and radiation followed. At the beginning of last year, Ms Sims' skin flap began to fail. A side-effect of the radiation meant the skin was literally melted away.

Meanwhile.

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