The one thing I did not mention in my last posting was that I had recently been diagnosed with the most aggressive form of skin cancer, a malignant melanoma.

In June 2012 I had noticed a tiny black dot on my upper right arm. I instantly knew this was not good and luckily within three days saw a skin cancer specialist, who immediately did a biopsy and discovered it was a malignant melanoma.

The biopsy showed the cancer had already spread, so after two more operations in quick succession the doctors hoped they had removed all the malignancy. The only treatment one can have after these operations is to have the skin all over your body and your glands checked every three months for five year.

Foolishly Out in The Midday Sun

I have natural strawberry blond hair and lots of freckles and knowing such people are the most susceptible to malignant melanomas, I now thought how stupid I had been to ever sit in the hot sun with my type of skin and hair colouring.

The doctors told me to never go in the sun again or I would die. From now on if I am in a hot country I must stay out of the sun and be completely covering up whenever I have to walk about in the sunshine.

The Sun in All its Dangerous Glory

In August on my last visit to Montenegro I had just had my last lot of stitches out and was feeling extremely vulnerable and unable to go out in the sunshine. I was in a sort of state of shock about what had just happened.

Overnight I had got to change from being a very active outdoors sort of person, into someone I just did not know how to be. I could definitely no longer go on holiday to hot countries without being constantly extremely careful.

I wondered what I was going to do now about my future life in Montenegro, being one of those hot countries.