PART 1
I was normal. Well, as normal as any gene could be given the fact that I was inside Gary. Yeah, I was normal until he decided to get a tan before he went on vacation. That part still doesn’t make sense to me.
One day, while I was patiently waiting for mitosis, Gary (the name of all my fellow cells including me) decided that it would be an awesome idea to go out and buy himself a tanning bed so that he “could get some pre-vacation tanning on.” No matter how dumb I thought this was, it’s what he did after that has made me what I am.
Gary decided that he didn’t need to read the instructions, that he could “use an off and on the switch.” What an idiot. The thing he missed was the fact that you’re only supposed to use a tanning bed for about ten minutes on average. 45 minutes later he emerged looking very burnt. The dumbest part is that he thought it was supposed to look that way! So, Gary kept doing his 45 minutes a day of tanning for 2 months. Well, you see, all a tan is, are cells dying. And not given the proper care and time to repair, they can become malformed and mutate.
That is what has happened to me. I couldn’t keep up with all the abuse from the UV light so now I’m broken. My DNA got all scrambled up like a bowl of eggs and now I can’t stop multiplying. I just keep going and going… Now Gary isn’t starting to feel very good. He has a strange sore that won’t heal, so he went to the doctor yesterday for some tests. It’s been long enough that he could tell him my name immediately. And what is that? Well, let me introduce myself then. Hi, I’m melanoma. I am a form of skin cancer born from too long a stay under the UV rays.
————————————————————1 year later—————————————————————
Gary is in the hospital now. They say that he’s going to be okay. He is lucky. I kill about 10,000 every year in the US alone. He is lucky because I got noticed early. 10,000 aren’t that lucky. I am easy to stop but after too long, I spread too far and can’t be stopped. The host is mine until there isn’t a healthy cell left alive.
The only way to get rid of me is to boil me in radiation and to try and remove any clumps of me that drift together. The longer I’m there, the harder it is to get rid of me. Like I said, Gary is lucky and will forever be impacted by my presence.
It’s Gary’s final chemo day now. The rest of my cells have dwindled down to a scattered handful. The waves of radiation wash through his body, killing the last of us until there is only me. Boiling, breaking and *POP*… I’m gone. Gary is now cancer free but on a long road to recovery.
But what’s that? Oh, look, it’s Kelsey. She’s been under the sun for a full three weeks on vacation with no sunscreen! And… there we go. I am in another host now along with about 100,000 others. Kelsey now has about a 9/10 chance of survival. The saddest part is that I could have easily been prevented with only a little bit of planning. So, you don’t want me? Don’t go too long in a tanning bed and wear some sunscreen!
PART 2
To make this story, I needed to ask some questions like “what is melanoma” and “what causes melanoma.” By doing this, it enabled me to make a more accurate story. To make the story, I wrote it in Microsoft word and also used Google and Youtube for finding information. One especially helpful website was www.skincancer.org.
I also used Easybib to cite the websites I got my information from. Overall, the process of making this story was successful and productive. I believe that it went well but could have taken less time if I had already had notes on this specific type of cancer.
CITATIONS