E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2GB THE RAY HADLEY MORNING SHOW
WEDNESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2020
 
SUBJECT: Melanoma diagnosis.
 
RAY HADLEY, HOST: Let's find out what happened with Jim Chalmers. He's on the line. G'day Jim.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: G’day Ray. How're you going?
 
HADLEY: Good champ. You dodged a bullet, hey?
 
CHALMERS: I'm glad I got it checked out. As you said in your introduction, and I should thank you for the way that you raise awareness of these issues, I had something on my chest which I spotted some months ago. Like a lot of Australians you get a bit complacent about it. I was at the doctor and we were having a yarn about some other things, and I said, while I've got you, what do you think about this guy here on my chest? He said, we've got to get that out straight away. We did that a couple of days later. The test came back as a melanoma. I was off to a specialist yesterday and now some surgery tomorrow which is expected to be relatively straightforward. Hopefully I'll be stitched up and raring to go after that. I was in two minds about raising it publicly Ray, but for the reason that you just went through in your introduction, and as I've heard you talk about before, I think there's a responsibility for all of us when we go through this kind of stuff to encourage each other. If you spot something unusual, or if you're not getting your skin regularly checked as you should, then we should encourage each other to do that. If I hadn't raised it, who knows where it might have ended up.
 
HADLEY: In relation to this mole of long standing, I've got it listed down what to look for: if it's flat and brown but starts to bubble over, things like that. Take photos of it which you can do now with your smartphone, making sure that it's the same in six months' time or in six weeks’ time as it was previously. This had changed in appearance had it, on your chest?
 
CHALMERS: As you'd expect given I'm a Queenslander, I've spent four decades in the sun and I've got a heap of kind of normal looking moles but this one stood out because it was jet black. I noticed that probably six or so months ago, because it's right in the middle of my chest. I see it when I brush my teeth and all of that. I've been looking at it for ages. The reason I raise it is because I made a mistake in letting it go for as long as I did. I was complacent about it and complacency is the enemy here. It was obvious to me that it looked different to the others. Finally I raised it with the doctor. I'm glad I did. People should do that. They should get a regular check, particularly if they see something that doesn't look quite right like mine didn't look quite right. The prognosis for people is generally pretty good if you get it early enough. I really just can't encourage your listeners enough Ray to do that.
 
HADLEY: I'm a bit older than you, but when you went on Christmas holidays or you went to the pool or whatever you did as a young bloke, no one knew of sunscreen. I mean, you didn't even wear a hat. You'd come back red raw and your mother and father would say, what have you done to yourself? Then they'd get the vinegar out and try and apply that to cool you down a bit! But then you'd tan up and you'd think oh yeah that's good, I've sunburned, and I've peeled and I've tanned - fantastic. But of course in more enlightened times like today, sunscreen's imperative for a whole range of people. I'm hopeful that in decades to come, the kids now who are treating it far differently to you and me won't have the same prevalence of skin cancers down the track because of the concerns parents now have for their children.
 
CHALMERS: Absolutely. A couple of things about that, Ray. I've got olive skin and that makes you a bit complacent too. I don't actually burn that easily. I've done some things to look after myself in the sun, but probably not enough on reflection. But for those of us who've got little kids, I've got three little kids at home all younger than six, we do the right thing by them; we lather them up every day, they've got rashies and big hats and everything. There's a bit of a disconnect between how we look after the little ones versus how we look after ourselves. I drop my daughter off at childcare and they've got suncream there and your lather them up and everything. A lot of people are doing the right thing by their kids, recognising that we want to do the right thing by them and protect them from the sun, but we need to do a better job with ourselves. Part of that is getting checked if you spot something dodgy but the old "slip, slop slap" doesn't hurt either.
 
HADLEY: So tomorrow's the day? You're going to see the surgeon and remove it and hopefully no further treatment required?
 
CHALMERS: Hopefully, yeah. I think they expect it to be relatively straightforward. I do want to acknowledge as well, Ray, that a lot of people have got a far more difficult prognosis and diagnosis than I have. There's a lot of people doing it tough. Mine is expected to be relatively straightforward. I'll have something that looks a bit like a zipper down the front of me for a few weeks, but hopefully it all goes okay and I'll be raring to go soon after.
 
HADLEY: Good on you mate. It's a very important message. I hope you recover in time to have a wonderful Christmas with your family and the kids and Santa Claus brings them everything they deserve. We'll talk to you in 2021 hale and hearty.
 
CHALMERS: Very good of you Ray. Thanks for the chat.
 
ENDS