Kristy Maloney

PATIENT STORIES - KRISTY MALONEY

Hi, my name is Kristy Maloney. I am a 40-year-old single mother to three amazing children (Brianna, 17, Charlotte, 7 and Tyler, 3). I grew up in Sydney but currently live on the Gold Coast, having moved here with Brianna in 2008.

When I was growing up, we owned a caravan in Toukley NSW that we would travel to most weekends and school holidays. I remember spending most of my childhood at the beach, playing netball and watching my siblings play sports. We were always outdoors. I did not like the beach and my parents would cover us kids in sunscreen. My skin has always been very fair, so mum was always applying sunscreen together with pink zinc. Regardless, I would always end up with a red nose after any outdoor activity. School back then was not like today and we were never forced to apply sunscreen while doing sport or any outdoor activity.

Fast forward to 2015 I started to notice a small sore-like bump on my forehead. It was flaky and would come and go. I ignored any signs that this could be harmful. I fell pregnant with my last child and pushed the bad thoughts to the side. I did not think much of it at the time or believe I could get skin cancer because I hate the outdoors and spend most of my time doing indoor activities. 

I had no idea my ignorance would change my life so dramatically.

The scabby-type sore became more prominent in the beginning of 2016 when I went on a small holiday with my children and best friends. During that holiday I started to notice it more in photos and it began itching more and more when I was out in the sun (see photo 1). On return from that holiday, I reached out to my GP just to be sure. He advised straight away that it needed to be removed. He took a biopsy that day and referred me immediately to Gold Coast Uni Hospital as an urgent case. 

The next month I was in an appointment with the maxillofacial team. Whilst there, they biopsied my forehead again. I was put on the surgical list and was told I would be contacted within the month for surgery. My case was missed at the appropriate level of urgency and I called to follow up. The hospital was then alerted that I should have been in earlier. Once recalled for a surgical consult the surgeon was examining my forehead again and a student doctor asked if I had ever had my nose checked. As I was totally unaware of anything on my nose, he requested a biopsy in 4 spots across the left side of my nose. To my surprise it came back that my nose was covered in BCC (basal cell carcinoma) and needed to be removed. 

My first operation was the removal of BCC from my forehead and the removal of BCC from my nose (see photo 3), a skin graft from my ears to replace the thin paper wall of my nose to avoid it collapsing (see photo 4). 

During the first consultation after my surgery, I was told the operation was successful and all BCCs were removed from my forehead and nose. But the grafting did not hold and became infected. This led to another operation in the coming weeks.

This second operation was to fix the infected skin grafting around my nose. At this operation I was informed that if it couldn’t be repaired, I would need to think about the possibility of forehead flap surgery or lose the whole left side of my nose. At the second consultation I was advised the graft was not fixing itself and I needed to make the decision about our next step. So, we booked in for forehead flap surgery for December 2017.

My third operation was the forehead flap surgery. (see photo 5). The surgery went well and I was discharged two days later to spend time with my children over Christmas Day. 

The flap was checked during my third consultation, and the removal of the forehead flap stem in January 2018 was discussed. 

Photo above is me now
(note that I am wearing makeup, though). 

During my fourth operation, the forehead flap was removed, and a revision of the original forehead site was done (see photo 6). I was left to heal over time. 

After some time, I had a fourth surgical consultation to view the healing process, and this continued over a few months. Since then, I have had an additional four small day-surgery operations for cosmetic reasons. My skin is still healing, and scarring is still visible.

I have just recently had another skin cancer frozen off on my forehead next to my scarring from the forehead flap so they may need to retest those areas in case of regrowth or new growth (see photo 7).

This whole process has changed my life. I fear the sun, and any outdoor activity makes me very anxious. I have missed a lot of my children’s milestones and have no confidence at all anymore. Whilst I know how lucky I am to be here with them I still wonder what life would be like without my scarring, without the constant staring or rude comments made by other people. I am only now starting to talk about my experience and I’ve shared this story with Jay and ASCF in the hopes I can help people realise that cancer in any form does not discriminate against anyone’s skin colour or age. My surgeons were mortified at my age and the amount of BCC that I had on my face. I remember so vividly multiple times the surgeons apologising to me for having to deal with this at such a young age. I wish I had listened to my gut feeling many months before I did. 

Please, if you have any tiny thoughts that something is not right, I urge you to have it checked.