Brave mum posts graphic daily photos of her face as she battles skin cancer which ‘ate away’ at her forehead
BRAVE mum-of-two is documenting her battle with skin cancer by posting graphic pictures of the cancer which "ate away" at her forehead.
Bethany Gambardella-Greenway hopes her 350 photos and brutally honest captions will raise awareness.
The 39-year-old was diagnosed with desmoplastic melanoma — an aggressive form of skin cancer — in August 2016 just after her second pregnancy.
The Texas mum is a fair-skinned who had always had more than a few freckles, so she didn't think much of it when a particular spot on her forehead started to get more pronounced.
But after a biopsy the area was deemed to be stage III melanoma.
She had surgery to remove the mole on her head and had a skin graft with skin from her thigh.
From her diagnosis, Bethany was determined to be optimistic and use her experience to inform others.
This is partly why she decided to start her raw and humour diary detailing her changing appearance, radiation, surgery and healing process.
The stay at home mum, from Austin, Texas, said: “I wasn't surprised by the diagnosis because my mother had melanoma at my age.
“I live in Texas where you have to put on sunscreen every day, I try to be careful, but I also have fair skin and I am ginger.
“When I burn I turn into a lobster and I don't know a summer where I've not burned once.”
The 39-year-old said she has been left “disfigured” by the cancer.
She said: “I lost the muscle on half my forehead and my left eyebrow almost completely save for like two tiny stray hairs.
“It's really rare – very destructive, usually only occurs with only men in their seventies.
"It's very rare for a younger female to get this.”
KNOW THE SIGNS Read about the simple ‘ABCDE’ rule to identify whether a mole is cancerous
She told that she created the album to avoid having to have constant conversations about her medical condition. "I just want to be able to be present," she explained. "Enjoy the life that I have instead of constantly rehashing the crap that I've had to go through."
Her album started twelve months ago, to begin she wrote: "Skin cancer is ugly. F**k the sun, f**k my delicate skin. F**k sunscreen.
"Yes you heard me, sunscreen works yah, it does more or less, but is it 100% no. I don't blame my faith in sunscreen for my cancer.
"This is what it is, I cannot be angry at genetics, the sun, and my body's reaction to it. Things happen and this is what is happening to me now."
Bethany didn't shy aware from sharing the grim reality of what she was going through.
From her skin graft, to struggling to wash her hair and joking that the compression bandage to help the skin graft adhere to her head made her look like Spongebob Square Pants. She also joked about learning new makeup skills to cover her "bacon" appearance.
In removing the moles, the surgeon had to remove some muscle from her forehead meaning that she lost her eyebrow, and will never be able to raise her replacement one.
But she said; "It's a small price to pay to watch my girls grow up."
She also warns other of the dangers of sun bathing.
Speaking to Today, she said: "It makes me ill [to watch other people tan. Please stop frying your skin.
"Please stop sun bathing and going to tanning salons.
"A tan isn't a healthy glow — it's damaged skin."
Her melanoma has been removed, but it will be 10 years before she can say she is in remission.
She's raising money for additional treatments, skin grafts and other surgeries through .
