Welcome to Season 2 of the Spot On podcast.  In Season 1, we focused on the fundamentals of skin cancer, interviewing some of Australia's leading clinicians on the topic.

In this season, we're focused more on the human side of a diagnosis. 

MSCAN is thrilled to have renowned journalist Deborah Knight involved and interviewing patients about their journey with skin cancer and the road ahead.

In this episode you will hear from Doug Phayer, who has bravely faced non-melanoma skin cancer and Dr Patricia Terrill from Doug’s clinical team.

Doug Phayer

Doug was first diagnosed with skin cancer at age 50, and since then he has been through 23 surgeries, and radiation therapy to remove squamous cell carcinomas (SCC’s) from his body. 

Doug’s 23rd surgery was the biggest and the worst. It took 10 hours and he lost the left side of his face and his ear to the SCC. During this surgery, they found that his lymph nodes were full of cancer. The skin cancers continued to appear. Doug has been successfully treated with immunotherapy and is now back to one of his main passions – fishing!

Dr Patricia Terrill (Tricia)

Ms Terrill is a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. She trained in Victoria undertook further training in the UK. Since 1993, she has been a consultant Plastic Surgeon employed in both the public and private sectors. In public, she is employed by the Peninsula Health Care Network, being Head of the Plastic Surgery Unit at Frankston Hospital. She has held this role since 1996 and developed the unit from 2 single surgeons to a large unit now with 12 consultants and 6 registrars. In private she works at Peninsula Private Hospital.

Patricia has an active surgical practice that includes a specialisation in skin cancer. She believes that full skin examinations are an essential part of skin cancer management.