MP’s eye safety mission borne from personal experience

DURING show season, you may have found sunglasses among the pamphlets and information given away in goodie bags by Federal Member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters. 

But the eyewear isn’t just another trinket added among the pens and other ephemera. The decision to include sunglasses comes from a deeply personal experience. 

Several years ago, Ms Chesters noticed a brown spot on her eyeball which progressively got worse.  

Her eye became so inflamed she kept having people come up to her asking if it was alright.  

Initially, an eye specialist told her it was nothing to worry about, but Ms Chesters said she was lucky she got a second opinion. 

In 2018, she had the spot removed, and testing revealed it was a melanoma. 

“That prompted me, post that experience, to give out sunglasses, red sunglasses with my name on the side as a way to start a conversation,” said Ms Chesters. 

“I give out pens, but I also give out sunglasses because it’s a great way for me to start a conversation about being sun-smart, particularly this summer because we know we’re going to have hotter days, brighter days. 

“Melanoma on the actual eyeball is really rare, and so I used it as a way to help raise awareness through my own experience.  

“This show season, we’ve handed out hundreds of sunglasses, and what I’ve used it to try and do is just prompted to say how important it is that we remember to slip on our sunglasses as well as slap on a hat and slop on some sunscreen.” 

Since the first operation, Ms Chesters said she needed several more eye surgeries. She also gets regular checkups every two years to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned.  

“What I wasn’t prepared for was the amount of times that I had to go back after the first surgery,” she said. “It was the ongoing treatment that comes with the cancer diagnosis.  

“I was very lucky that because it was a melanoma on the surface we could localise the treatment, where I know other people who’ve been diagnosed with similar conditions haven’t been so lucky. 

“This sun damage was done when I was little, when I was in school.” 

Sun damage can be a ticking time bomb, you may actually have developed skin cancer when you were a kid, but it’s only later in life that it manifests. 

“That’s where we’ve always got to be vigilant and if a spot starts to change, go see a doctor, get the referral, get it taken off if in doubt because it is about that early detection,” said Ms Chesters.