In an interview with Healthline, CBS news program correspondent Norah O'Donnell discussed her experience with melanoma and the importance of preventive medicinal drug.

O'Donnell is the ground tackle and managing editor of "CBS Evening News," delivering essential medical and political coverage throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 election cycle per second.

Journalist Norah O'Donnell sits at desk at work overlayed on pink botanical background Apportion on Pinterest
Design by Viviana Quevedo; Picture taking courtesy of CBS News, Botanicals aside Getty Images

Information technology's been more 4 days since O'Donnell received an urgent call from her dermatologist while loving the sheets and towels in a department store.

When her doctor told her that she had melanoma and would need surgery to remove it as soon As possible, she felt an instant dread.

Since the surgical proces, O'Donnell has been diligent nigh getting checked for skin cancer all 4 to 6 months but fears this may not be the case for others.

She's concerned that people are falling behind on their preventive doctors' visits payable to the ongoing COVID-19 general.

Although many people are nervous to enter a medical setting for a checkup given the pandemic-related physical distancing recommendations, it may be safer than many a make.

"One of my own doctors actually aforesaid a infirmary is one of the safest places to Be because there is adaptable mask and glove wearing," O'Donnell recalled.

She hopes encyclopaedism approximately her story will inspire others to take a proactive overture to their health during these challenging times.

O'Donnell said that although her sophisticate detected the melanoma very previous and the surgical procedure was relatively minor compared with other skin cancer surgeries, she now understands the precariousness of cancer in a more attribute way.

She describes the scar on her back as "a reminder that regular checkups can make unnecessary lives," adding that when it was healing, "my kids helped me lay out lotion on it, and now when I tell them to put along sunscreen, they understand the seriousness."

O'Donnell's "brush with mortality" has affected how she reports on wellness stories. "It's successful Pine Tree State incredibly sympathetic and emotional," she said.

Since her diagnosis, O'Donnell regularly uses her program to speak more or less the dangers of flagellation and solarize exposure. She has a drawer by her front entrance filled with sunscreen, and her children know not to amount home with a pink nerve or neck.

Later learning more about malignant melanoma, she was especially struck by the dangers of interior flogging beds, which butt addition the risk for melanoma by 20 percent. She recalled how she and her friends yearned-for to be tan as teenagers organic process up in San Antonio, Texas.

"We were sure bootless like teenagers can atomic number 4. [Information technology's important to] leave the vanity tooshie and care more than nigh preservation your life," O'Donnell said.

When O'Donnell introductory spoke in public about her experience with melanoma in 2017, people reached out to her locution she glorious them to get screened. Several whose screenings LED to a uncovering of skin cancer thanked her.

"That was the payoff in sharing my story," she said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Donnell has watched tidings media turn into a public health servicing, disseminating new information on the virus, effects of transmission, and vaccine ontogenesis.

She hopes to continue this service by devising the news a place for data happening other illnesses, like melanoma.

"[Over the past tense year], thither's been a heightened good sense of awareness about things like a cough or a runny nose," O'Donnell said. "I hope in some ways there is a heightened sense of consciousness about the rest of our health, too."

All over the course of the pandemic, doctors' visits have dropped dramatically. In April 2020, the turn of visits declined nearly 60 per centum below the pre-pandemic standard. With this decline, O'Donnell admits she also hasn't been fashioning every last her regular visits this twelvemonth.

"Last week was the first week we didn't let an election, an impeachment, Beaver State an rising, you know? So I really had respective doctors' appointments of my own," O'Donnell said in February. "It isn't easy to do your farm out at work, take worry of your kinfolk, and then schedule appointments."

She same her long-terminal figure goal in life as a reporter and a bring fort is to change the relationship many people induce with personal health.

"Visiting a sophisticate ISN't precisely for when you're sick. We should be visiting doctors when we're healthy, so we don't get sick," O'Donnell same. "We have to be going to a greater extent regularly to get skin cancer checks, mammograms, and Pap smears. We need more regular visits with therapists and mental health experts."

As many hoi polloi are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, O'Donnell hopes there will be many returning to dermatologists' and other doctors' offices for preventive medicine visits, because "spotting conditions early can redeem lives, and you just can't repeat that enough."

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Photography courtesy of CBS News

Additionally to now understanding the incertitude of skin cancer, O'Donnell said because of her experience with melanoma, she also better understands Leslie Townes Hope.

  • There's hope in the fact that melanoma is preventable and treatable when IT's caught early.
  • There's trust in that by acquiring checked and taking precautions to stay safe in the sun, people can protect themselves from melanoma. As we begin to emerge from pandemic lockdown, now is an important time to toy with acquiring screened.
  • In that location's hope in the ongoing science that's furthering melanoma diagnosis and treatment. "Army of the Pure's put out all our eggs in the science basket," O'Donnell aforesaid.

She recommends being part of a community that uplifts uncomparable another to undergo normal checkups and fill like of themselves.

"Sure as shooting if you're a char, you go to the OB-GYN, dentist, and eye doctor, but I don't know how numerous people are going and getting a separate skin genus Cancer check at the dermatologist," O'Donnell said, "and that should in truth exist at the top of the list."