In September 2017 I will be participating in an 11-day trek along the Great Wall of China to raise funds for the Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA).

Every dollar raised through the Great Wall of China Trek will go towards supporting the continual work of MIA, providing much needed funds for life-saving research. By taking part in this amazing adventure I will be raising vital funds to bring MIA ever closer to finding a cure for melanoma.

MIA is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to preventing and curing melanoma through innovative, world-class research, treatment and education programs. MIA relies on the generosity of individuals, organisations and government funding to continue its ground breaking work into Australia’s national cancer which is the most common cancer in young Australians aged 15–39 years.

Where does my fundraising go?

NeoTrioTrial: prevent melanoma advancing

As the saying goes, 'prevention is the best cure, and MIA's Neo Trio Trial is all about this.

The standard treatment for patients who develop stage III melanoma (melanoma which has travelled to the lymph nodes) is to have surgery to remove the affected and surrounding lymph nodes, known as a complete lymph node dissection.

Sadly, even after this proceedure, there is high likelihood of the melanoma returning and advancing to stage IV melanoma, meaning it has spread to distant organs around the body causing it to be highly life threatening.

New drugs have been trialled and shown to be effective to treat stage IV melanoma, but wouldn't it be incredible if we could stop it advancing to this point in the first place?

The Neo Trio Trial is an important clinical study that will test whether immunotherapy treatments currently used to treat stage IV patients could in fact prevent patients from developing advanced melanoma all together.

On the trial, patients with stage III melanoma will receive immunotherapy or immunotherapy plus targeted therapy before and after their complete lymph node dissection to see if it will prevent stage IV melanoma from developing.  This will be evolutionary if it works.