Just before Wombat arrived on The Block, he noticed a small red sore on his wrist that didn’t appear to be healing.
After discussing his concerns, Wombat’s good mate Sticks advised him that he should get his skin checked.
Yet with the excitement of competing on The Block looming over them, Wombat delayed going to the doctors until he returned home several months later.
“I said, ‘As soon as it’s finished, I’ll do it straight after,’” Wombat recalls.
“I forgot about it until I got back home and looked at my arm again and realised the spot was still there.”
When he did go to the doctor, they immediately removed the sore and surrounding skin.
Wombat was told it was a basal cell carcinoma (BCC) – a non-melanoma skin cancer.
“When they say you’ve got a cancer, it’s like, ‘Whoa!’” he says.
“I was worried about it coming back in the same spot.”
Having now had two skin cancers removed in the past two years, avid surfer Wombat says he’s vigilant about how much time he spends in the sun.
“I’ve been told that now I’ve had a couple, they will pop up from time to time and I just have to keep on to it and get them cut out,” the 38-year-old explains.
He encourages other people to act swiftly if they have concerns about their skin, saying, “You just need to get it done.”
“People get scared to go and get checked because they’re worried about what’s going to happen – especially people that spend a lot of time in the sun,” he says. “But you just need to get it done.”
