Kevin Donaghy twice survived skin cancer | immunotherapy | pembroluzimab | metastatic melanoma

DESCRIPTION

What began as a harmless looking spot on Kevin Donaghy’s forearm turned into a pair of diagnoses of skin cancer.  The first was Stage II in 2018, but 18 months later, it returned and was diagnosed Stage IV metastatic melanoma BRAF+.  The urologist said Kevin, an IT specialist from Melrose, Scotland, may have six months to live unless he underwent a newly-approved immunotherapy known as pembroluzimab.  That was in 2020, and Kevin is still with us.  The immunotherapy triggered a bout of ulcerative colitis, which left him bedridden for six months, but Kevin says his health is no different than it was before his diagnosis.

In late 2017, Kevin didn’t give much thought to a spot he saw on his forearm.  He thought he might have cut himself and didn’t know it.  When the spot didn’t go away, he sought medical attention.  His doctor said the spot did not look cancerous, prescribed some cream for Kevin to rub on it, and said if the spot changes in size, shape or color, to come back.  The spot made none of those changes, but it also didn’t go away.

Kevin was referred to a dermatologist, who called for a biopsy.  He was away on a business trip when he received an urgent phone call stating that Kevin needed to come in that afternoon.  He came in two days later and the dermatologist said the biopsy indicated Kevin had a cancerous tumor in his forearm.  Another biopsy was conducted to see if the cancer had spread to any lymph nodes and thankfully it hadn’t.

Not long after the tumor was removed, Kevin received a phone call from the oncologist while walking in downtown Edinburgh.  The doctor told Kevin he was cancer free.  On the sidewalk, he dropped to his knee and wept, overcome with relief.  He thought the worst was over.

However, his health took a turn for the worse some 18 months later when he experienced severe back pain and sought medical attention.  Another biopsy revealed that the melanoma had spread, bypassing his lymph nodes, but resulting in tumors on his right lung and one next to his spine, which was the source of back pain.

Kevin was told he had six months to live unless a procedure involving an immunotherapy called pembroluzimab was successful.  The operation seemed to go well, but at its conclusion, Kevin had to periodically come in for CT scans.  A couple years later, Kevin was contacted by his urologist who said the immunotherapy had shrunk the tumors and again, he was told he was cancer free.

There was one more problem for Kevin.  The immunotherapy triggered ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease.  He was bedridden for six months, but eventually survived that as well.

These days Kevin Donaghy says his health is just as sharp as it was prior to his diagnosis, and that going forward he “wants to do more.”

He has gone on to write a book, “Stories of Hope and Cancer.”  Thousands of copies have been donated to cancer charities around the United Kingdom.  It chronicles the stories of 39 cancer survivors.

Additional Resources:

Kevin’s book: “Stories of Hope and Cancer,” available on Amazon, with proceeds going to cancer charities throughout the United Kingdom.

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: Greetings.  This is the @CancerInterviews podcast, and I am your host, prostate cancer survivor Bruce Morton.  Our guest on this episode survived Stage IV metastatic melanoma BRAF+.  He is Kevin Donaghy of Melrose, Scotland.  After achieving survivorship, there was more to his story, but again he survived and went on to write a book.  Now is the time to hear his story, and Kevin, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Kevin Donaghy: Thank you very much, Bruce.  Lovely to be here.

BM: Kevin, it is our custom to start each interview in the same way, and that is learn more about you and your life away from cancer.  So, help us out, and let us know where you are from, what you have done for work and what you do for fun.

KD: Yes.  I grew up in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, a beautiful city, right in the heart of Scotland.  Spent my first 18 years there, at home, studying the world of IT and marketing, and I fell into the world of IT, where I have been working for the past 35 years in Scotland and all over the UK.  I am married to the amazing Sophie, we have two children who are in their twenties and we livc in the picturesque town of Melrose.  It has an old, eleventh-century abbey.  The Romans used to live here 1800 years ago, beautiful river full of salmon and trout, and lots of hills to walk, which is my passion when I am not working in IT.

BM: For all of us diagnosed with cancer, we have at least one thing in common.  There was a time in which something about health suddenly seemed abnormal, and that led to a diagnosis of cancer.  For you, when did things start to go sideways and what happened?

KD: I noticed something on my forearm in 2017.  Being a typical male, I thought it would go away, perhaps I cut my arm without realizing.  It didn’t go away and I was persuaded to go to the doctor.  He had a look at it and said it doesn’t look cancerous, to put some cream on it and if the spot doesn’t go away, if it changes shape or color or size, to get in touch.  Well, I might have left it a bit too long.  I saw another doctor who referred to a dermatologist.  The dermatologist said it doesn’t look cancerous, but to be safe, he wanted to do a biopsy.  We had a biopsy in 2017.  I was in London and got an urgent call from the dermatologist asking me to come in that afternoon, and at that point I knew this was not going to be good news.  They don’t bring you in urgently to tell you everything is fine.  It was two days later after I got back from London that I went in, and the dermatologist told me based on the biopsy, I had Stage II melanoma, it was a cancerous tumor, it was quite deep, it was more than two millimeters.  He also said he was going to call for another biopsy to check a nearby lymph node to see if the cancer had spread, so life changed for us that day, Bruce.

BM: And how difficult was the treatment to address that deeply-located tumor?

KD: It wasn’t too bad.  It took a few months for the operation to be scheduled.  I was put under anesthetic.  The plastic surgeon did a very good job.  He did a wide area incision, taking the area around the tumor and underneath it.  Just to be on the safe side, they removed a lymph node under my left arm, which they identified might be the possible place because melanoma does tend to spread to your lymph nodes.  Skin cancer is the only cancer you can see.  There are other cancers that you can feel, but skin cancer is the only cancer you can visibly see.  So, a couple weeks later after getting that cancer removed, I got a phone call when I was on a busy street Edinburgh street, Princess Street, which has a beautiful panoramic view of the castle up on the hill.  The voice said, “Congratulations.  You can have a good weekend.  The cancer hasn’t spread.”  And at that point, I just collapsed onto my knees and started crying, Bruce.  The wave of relief just cascaded over me.  It was an immense feeling.  Here I was, I could tell my family, my friends that I was cancer free, and life was going to be good.

BM: By the way, we hope you will find time to like and subscribe to our channel.  And if you click on the bell icon, you will be notified the next time we post an interview.  We also want to remind you that on Cancer Interviews, we are not distributors of medical advice.  If you seek medical advice, please contact a licensed health care professional.

So, Kevin, you had just received this powerful and positive news.  At that point, did you think the worst was over?

KD: Absolutely, Bruce.  I was cancer free.  It didn’t progress past Stage II, so life was wonderful.  Life was amazing.  It was time to get on and concentrate on work and family.  I was 48 years old at the time, and the worry and doubt had passed, so everything was good at that point.

BM: But you ran into a rather formidable hurdle some 18 months later.  What happened?

KD: I was traveling on business in Manchester and I experienced excruciating back pain.  It was so bad, I had to call the emergency services.  I had never experienced pain like that.  I was sitting in a hotel doubled over.  An ambulance came and assessed me, took me into the local hospital in Manchester, where they did a number of tests and an x-ray.  I remember the junior registrar coming back to me saying she wasn’t happy with the x-ray and would like to do another one.  I never thought anything of this.  Following that x-ray two days later, I received a call asking me to come in for a CT scan.  As far as I was concerned, my cancer had been treated.  I just wasn’t sure why I had this severe pain in my back.  On Friday the 13^th of December 2019, I was invited to meet an oncologist at the hospital in Edinburgh.  He told me he was quite sure that my melanoma had bypassed my lymphatic system, but had presented two melanoma tumors, one in my right lung and one next to my spine, which was causing my back pain.  It was classified as Stage IV Metastatic Melanoma.  He told me it was incurable and it was life-limiting, but hopefully if I responded to immunotherapy, my life could be extended.

BM: Was immunotherapy your only option?

KD: It really was, yes.  In Scotland, there were only three drugs licensed for use in immunotherapy.  The oncologist explained to me that because I had a history of ulcerative colitis, where your body attacks itself in the lower bowel, this was one of the side effects of immunotherapy, so he had chosen for me to start pembroluzimab, and I would be starting that in January 2020.  Now I was charged with the prospect of having to my wife, my family and my children that the cancer had come back and that the future wasn’t looking too rosy.

BM: In terms of the treatment, what was the toughest part?

KD: To be honest with you, immunotherapy is a revolutionary cancer treatment.  It has only been around for about 12 or 14 years.  It was explained it doesn’t cause hair loss.  There are side effects, but you don’t get violently ill like you do with chemotherapy.  I felt a sense of guilt because I walked in looking healthy and working out looking healthy, unlike many patients who were in bad shape.  Meanwhile, six weeks into my treatment, we went into COVID lockdown.  My wife and I had made plans in 2020 to travel, see friends and family because there was a 66 percent chance I might have nine or twelve months to live if the immunotherapy didn’t work.  For me, the largest impact was on my mental health.  Like the rest of the world, I was staring outside and wondering if I would ever be able to go out again. 

BM: When you were going through the immunotherapy, did you have a good feeling that you would come out in a positive way on the other end?

KD: I went into it with a positive attitude.  I know that Googling can be very scary, but I did a lot of reading.  I needed to get healthy, so I cut out alcohol, I went primarily on a vegetarian/vegan diet, I exercised.  I want to make sure I was match-fit.  Part of that was trying to prepare myself mentally, that perhaps if I was in a good place, maybe it would help with the treatment.

BM: When did you feel like you were really moving toward survivorship?

KD: I responded very quickly to the pembroluzimab.  I had started a treatment at the end of January 2020 and on April 23, I received a call from my oncologist to confirm that both my tumors had shrank.  Just by a few millimeters, but that gave me an immense boost.  I thought that if I continued to respond, then I could get an extra two or three years.

BM: Was there a specific day, Kevin, in which you learned you were cancer free?

KD: I had regular scans, every three months, then every six months, then annual, and in early 2026, I received a call from my oncologist.  He said because there had been no cancer for the past few years for the past few years, based on my response and also based on data, he was very confident that I had beaten the melanoma cancer.  That was the first time since 2020 that I had heard those words.

BM: And how exciting was that?

KD: Incredibly exciting.  Very emotional.  I didn’t quite collapse onto my knees, but yes, I gave my wife a big hug, called friends and family and spoke to my children and said it looks like we can look a lot further forward.  I gave huge thanks to my medical professionals, and yes, it is looking a lot rosier now, Bruce.

BM: Kevin, if you could classify your pre-diagnosis health as 100 percent, think of how you are now, and tell us how close you are to 100 percent these days.  In other words, is there anything today you cannot do that you could do, pre-diagnosis?

KD: I’d say I am 100 percent.  There is nothing I cannot do.  One of the major side effects of the immunotherapy is ulcerative colitis.  I spent a good few years trying to combat that.  My body started attacking itself again.  I spent six months in bed.  I almost had to learn how to walk again, but as of today, I classify myself as 100 percent. I have a desire to do more, Bruce, than I did pre-cancer.

BM: Outstanding.  Now let’s get to a pleasant part of our conversation.  You have chronicled your journey and the journeys of others in a book.  It is titled, “Stories of Hope and Cancer.”  Tell us about it.

KD: Yes.  The idea for the book came about during my treatment and during COVID.  I met some amazing people on Zoom who were also affected by melanoma and I got a lot of hope from hearing their stories.  They were sharing their stories with me and that gave me the idea in 2021, I felt because their stories helped me that perhaps I could gather people’s stories and share them in a book format, so that other people affected by cancer could perhaps find hope and not feel alone.  When I was diagnosed, I didn’t know anyone with melanoma.  I didn’t know anyone who was Stage IV, and for any cancer, Stage IV sounds like a death sentence.  I started to reach out to people I knew who were affected by cancer, through people I work with in IT, through friends and family, and I wanted to give away a thousand copies of the book to cancer charities and cancer centers in the UK.  Through sponsorship and demand, the book has grown arms and legs.  For those who wish to purchase it, the book is available on Amazon.  It covers the stories of 39 people with all different types of cancer, not just melanoma.  All the royalties go to UK cancer charities.

BM: Excellent, Kevin.  Now it’s time to wrap up and we are going to conclude the way we always do, with the following question.  If you encountered someone who had just been diagnosed with melanoma, they would likely have lots of questions, and you, knowing what you know, would have lots of answers.  But if there is any one thing you would want to make sure was retained by this person once you two went your separate ways, what would it be?

KD: Do not do this on your own.  There are amazing organizations, whatever country you are in, there may be skin cancer organizations, charities, an opportunity to talk to somebody like myself who has been on this journey already, someone who can offer support and just listen to your hopes and your fears.  Don’t try to do this in isolation.

BM: Kevin Donaghy, thanks for a terrific story with lots of great information and inspiration.  Anybody who listens to this and pay attention will be better for it.  Kevin, thanks so much for being with us on Cancer Interviews.

KD: Thank you very much, Bruce.

BM: And we want to remind you as we always do when we conclude, that if you or a loved one is on a cancer journey, you are not alone.  There are people out there just like Kevin Donaghy who can make the cancer journey a bit easier.  So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

Additional Resources:

Kevin’s Book: “Stories of Hope and Cancer,” available on Amazon with proceeds going to cancer charities in the United Kingdom

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Kevin Donaghy, Skin Cancer Survivor – Melrose, Scotland

What began as a harmless looking spot on Kevin Donaghy’s forearm turned into a pair of diagnoses of skin cancer.  The first was Stage II in 2018, but 18 months later, it returned and was diagnosed Stage IV metastatic melanoma BRAF+.  The urologist said Kevin may have six months to live unless he underwent a newly-approved immunotherapy known as pembroluzimab.  That was in 2020, and Kevin is still with us.  The immunotherapy triggered a bout of ulcerative colitis, which left him bedridden for six months, but Kevin says his health is no different than it was before his diagnosis.

Additional Resources:

Kevin’s book, “Stories of Hope and Cancer,” available on Amazon with proceeds going to cancer charities in the United Kingdom

Time Stamps:

02:01 Kevin noticed something on his forearm, which is where his cancer journey began.

03:00 After a biopsy, he received an urgent call from his dermatologist and was told he had cancer.

03:44 Recalls the procedure in which his cancerous tumor was removed.

04:35 Relives the phone call he received telling him he was cancer free.

06:15 Kevin said 18 months later, cancer returned and it started with severe back pain.

07:48 Said immunotherapy was his only option.

08:42 Names the worst part of the treatment.

10:11 Said he approached treatment with a positive attitude.

11:26 Remembers feeling as though he was moving toward survivorship.

12:45 Kevin said he was thrilled to learn from his oncologist that he had survived cancer a second time.

13:32 Compares his health today to what it was before he was diagnosed.

18:33 Advice for others.

KEYWORDS (tags)

skin cancer

stage 4 metastatic melanoma BRAF+

immunotherapy

pembroluzimab

kevin donaghy

ulcerative colitis