ASCF finds Melanoma in time for NRL legend Laurie Spina!
Australian Skin Cancer Foundation finds Melanoma in time for NRL legend Laurie Spina!
Australia’s Skin Check Truck has saved another life NRL legend Laurie Spina after visiting the rural communities of QLD recently.
The following article is taken from an interview with The Sunday Telegraph dated 28th July 2024.
“Melanoma could have killed me.”
Former NRL star and ABC broadcaster Laurie Spina has had a miraculous escape from what was a potentially deadly melanoma.
It was only by chance that a mobile Australian Skin Cancer Foundation truck turned up to the recent Laurie Spina Shield -a popular junior carnival in Townsville-that the former North Sydney Bears, Eastern Suburbs Roosters, Cronulla Sharks and North Queensland Cowboys halfback decided to get checked. Spina, now 61, was found to have a stage- one melanoma that, left undiagnosed, could have spread and taken his life. "I'm so lucky." Spina said. "The (skin cancer) truck was parked at my carnival a couple of weeks ago.
"It was almost by accident. We're walking out to the car park and my wife said, 'Why don't you go and get your skin checked?’ I had time so I went in. "They found I've got a problem."
Spina was sent for surgery to have the tumour cut from his stomach. A biopsy revealed the melanoma had spread further than first thought.
"The doctor wants to do a wider cut to get it all," Spina said "Who knows what could have happened if I didn't stop for the check-up?
"It can go to the next stage. and then you're in real trouble. It can be too late. "It's important that I'm sharing the story as a warning to others to get checked. I didn't think I had a problem."
Spina played 172 first-grade games for the Bears, Roosters, Sharks and the Cowboys- a lightweight halfback who played well above his weight.
He started in the mid-'80s and retired in 1995. Every off- season he'd spend four months in the burning heat on his farm in North Queensland.
"You know what young blokes are like-you don't always wear a shirt," he said. "T've spent my life on the farm, and it's obviously contributed to skin cancer.
“I’ll be a lot more careful from here on."
