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Hawke’s Bay mother of two Sarah Barr, who lost her mum to melanoma as a child, is now undergoing treatment for the disease. Givealittle pages and a 24-hour swimming event have helped raise thousands of dollars for cancer drug Keytruda, which isn’t funded for melanoma in New Zealand. Here she shares her story with the New Zealand Herald and urges others to stay vigilant with their skin checks .

Sarah Barr, 35, has been “really careful in the sun” ever since she lost her mum to melanoma when she was a teenager. Now a mum herself to Emma, 4, and Hugo, 1, she’d raised concerns about a mole on her arm with several doctors, who told her it was nothing to worry about. It wasn’t until August last year, when she took Hugo, then 6 months, to the doctor for an ear infection that the alarm was raised.



“That doctor was like, ‘What’s that on your arm?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, everyone else said it was fine’,” Barr tells the New Zealand Herald . This doctor saw the warning signs and booked Barr in for another check. A week later, the diagnosis came - stage 3 melanoma - but it wasn’t exactly a shock.

“I think deep down, I knew, really,” Barr admits. “But I was worried because I didn’t want my kids to grow up without a mum, especially since they’re so little. I didn’t want history to repeat itself, so I was mainly more scared for them than myself.

” Barr lost both her parents at a young age - her mum to melanoma - and says her own diagnosis marked.

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