Madeleine Sami and Ladyhawke were enjoying their baby's arrival when the melanoma diagnosis came. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
Ladyhawke was a proud new mum to a beautiful little girl when her perfect world suddenly came crashing down.
Cancer - in the form of melanoma - was a diagnosis the Kiwi muso, real name Pip Brown, did not expect and would shock her wife Madeleine Sami and their friends and family.
But instead of sadness, she felt a different emotion.
"I was so angry. I just couldn't believe it,'' she told the Weekend Herald.
"I had just had this amazing little daughter and then this happened.
"I was angry at myself as well - I kept thinking: 'I didn't cover myself up properly at some point. What if I had got it checked earlier'?
"I was just kicking myself for all those sorts of things.''
The 39-year-old has shared more about her journey after being diagnosed with melanoma in August last year.
Earlier this week she spoke about her journey at the Cancer Care at a Crossroad Conference in Wellington, including how she had first spotted the mole behind one of her legs and knew that she needed to see a doctor about it.
"I sort of notice things like that anyway and I couldn't pinpoint though how long it had been there for," she told the Weekend Herald in an exclusive interview.
"Some photographs I went through, it wasn't there when I was a teenager. And then it kind of appeared in my mid-20s.''
When she was pregnant with her daughter in 2017, she noticed the mole had begun to change. It had become raised, itchy and "weird-looking".
Her daughter, Billy Jean, was born in October that year.
"I got caught up in the craziness of having a newborn baby. But still, it was in the back of my mind, I've got this thing I need to get checked out.''
A mole map examination eventually showed the mole was possibly melanoma.
A biopsy was carried out and she waited an "agonising'' 10 days before the results came back to say she had invasive melanoma.
"At that point I didn't even know if I was gonna live. I didn't know if it had spread, how bad it was. It was just all a big question mark.''
Brown underwent surgery and a large chunk of her leg, including a lymph node, was removed. The cancer had not spread and she was given the all-clear.
'IF YOU'RE WORRIED - GET IT CHECKED'
Life these days, however, is about monitoring even the tiniest of freckles and constantly being sun smart when out and about.
"Billy Jean, she's always got a hat. When we go swimming ... she's covered head to toe in a rashie and with sunscreen.
"I just want it to be second nature for her when she goes to the beach, to make sure she's got a rash top on, make sure she wears sunscreen."
Brown said she was compelled to speak publicly about her experience in the hope it would motivate others to get a mole map examination done or to be more careful when out in the sun.
It was important people remembered New Zealand had the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, she said.
"I think everyone's kind of prone to it. It freaks me out to think about it.
"We, as Kiwis, live under this extremely hot sun. If you're worried about something or anything changes slightly, please get it checked.
"You can't put it off. Life's too precious."
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