A lawyer who lost her husband to skin cancer nine months after their wedding has pleaded with other young Londoners to protect themselves against the “aggressive” disease.
Lesley Olsen, 32, said it was a “complete shock” when her husband Andrew Thomas was diagnosed with melanoma, as he never sunbathed and had no family history of the cancer.
She said: “A lot of young men tend to think they’re invincible. Andrew was one of those people. He went through life thinking he was bulletproof.
“My advice would be that you have got to take these things seriously. A lot of people are very unaware of how serious melanoma is. It’s probably one of the most serious and aggressive forms of cancer you can get and one of the hardest to treat once it’s spread. I had no comprehension you could be diagnosed and be gone a year later.”
Thomas, a bond broker, died aged 33 in June last year, a month after suddenly becoming extremely ill. After being diagnosed with melanoma in early 2011 he and Lesley moved back to the UK from Hong Kong, where they had been working, and received care from the Royal Marsden Hospital. He had initially been diagnosed after tests on a mole on his chest showed the disease had spread to one of his lymph nodes. He was told there was every chance that it had been caught in time.
“He was so young, fit and healthy — it just didn’t make any sense,” Lesley recalled, adding: “Andrew seemingly took everything in his stride, and remained extremely optimistic, but I felt as if my world had been turned upside down.”
He was admitted to the Royal Marsden in May last year. Tests showed the melanoma had spread to his brain and there were at least five tumours. Lesley said: “We could not believe how quickly and aggressively the disease had developed with no symptoms. We all knew deep down that there was essentially nothing that could be done.”
Last Sunday Lesley led a team of 10 of Andrew’s family in running the Royal Parks half-marathon, raising about £7,000 for the Royal Marsden to help fund ongoing research into skin cancer.
