Young Melbourne woman Teish Ward's brutal warning after teenage years spent 'baking in the sun' were followed by a horror diagnosis

A young Aussie has issued a brutal warning after she was diagnosed with melanoma aged just 20.

Teish Ward, who lives in Melbourne, underwent surgery in 2019 to remove the skin cancer and 11 lymph modes to try and cure her of the disease. 

Ms Ward also spent a year and a half receiving chemotherapy and immunotherapy and is now warning others to protect themselves when they are at the beach with friends. 

'You always think it will never happen to you but it can — and it did to me,' she told Yahoo. 

Ms Ward said she spent most of her teenage years hanging out at the beach 'baking in the sun' with her girlfriends. 

'I've grown up along the beach my whole life as well so, while I definitely wore a hat and wore sunscreen, I did also tan and lie in the sun,' she said. 

The years spent soaking up the rays, however, took a toll on Ms Ward's skin.

It was her older sister Georgia who first noticed a freckle on the then 20-year-old's back. 

The small lump that had risen on her skin would bleed every time Ms Ward scratched the spot. 

She decided to get her doctor to have a look at it a few days later, and soon received the dreaded news she had melanoma. 

The doctor said Ms Ward would need to undergo surgery to have the disease removed from her body. 

Despite the diagnosis, Ms Ward was quick to dismiss the seriousness of the illness and said she would be fine once surgeons cut the mole out. 

Ms Ward was admitted to Alfred Hospital just four days later and had the cancerous tissue removed from her back. 

Surgeons also took out 11 lymph nodes (which are small lumps of tissue that fight infection) that had also become cancerous. 

Five lymph modes were removed from one of Ms Ward's armpits and six were removed from the other. 

After the surgery, however, clinicians informed her a week later that the cancer had advanced but remained confident the disease could be completely cured. 

'We walked into the room and there was a big team of people and they told us, 'This is a really unfortunate case [and] it has actually spread. It's stage 3C melanoma,' Ms Ward said. 

The advanced diagnosis meant Ms Ward had go through chemotherapy and immunotherapy, while having PET and MRI scans every six months. 

Ms Ward finished up her chemotherapy in 2020 and decided to help others to become more aware about the causes of skin cancer and the harmful effects of exposing their skin to the sun. 

Along with Georgia, Ms Ward founded GT Skin in 2021 and launched fake tan products, as an alternative to laying in the sun at the beach. 

Still recovering from her surgery, Ms Ward will receive her final test results from her ongoing treatment in August. 

Melanoma is the third most common form of cancer in Australia with one in 17 Aussies  diagnosed with the disease. 

More than 18,200 Aussies were diagnosed with melanoma in 2023 alone.