Under the cover, hidden battle with cancer reveals … and the sign that he ignored because he was ‘naive’

Captain Jason Chambers has spent the last three decades on sailing people around the world on luxury yachts – spending hours every day in the sizzling sun.

Still, when a small brown spot he had had on his ribs for ten years turned out to be melanomaHe was shocked by his ‘naïve’.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Chambers said: ‘I have been on the water for three decades now and I thought … that will never be a problem.

“But it’s a problem.”

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancerTalks around 200,000 Americans a year – and in the Australia’s birthplace of Chambers, melanoma is diagnosed every 30 minutes.

But Chambers, 52, never thought it would happen to him – until he was inspired by a friend on their own skin cancer trip to have his place checked.

He said, “I thought to myself, I should check mine because I had not received a check for that for five years … It just felt different in my body – my intuition.”

Chambers went to his doctor in Bali, where he lived at that time and the sunscreen complex was removed and biopsy. Shortly thereafter, in December 2024, he received an e -mail in which he was told that he had melanoma.

Chambers was stunned, but traveled to promote his Bravo reality show Under deck under So he climbed to try to make a doctor’s appointment for when he returned.

However, he was discouraged by how challenging it was and Dailymail.com told: “It is so long to come to a dermatologist, which is sad.”

In the end he was able to make an appointment with a doctor in Sydney – but the challenges did not end there.

While doctors in Bali removed the place, Australian doctors were not satisfied with a few details in the report, including not at the stage that melanoma rooms had or which margins showed the skin cancer.

Although they estimate phase 2, which meant that Chambers should undergo a more invasive procedure to remove muscles over the spot on his ribs, doctors told him that if he could get the biopsy to Australia, they could give him a more precise diagnosis and prognosis.

However, this required weeks of logistics planning and bureaucracy to cut, some worried rooms, and he began to do his own research.

He told this website: ‘As that period progressed, I started researching and [questioned] How was I so naive? How did I not only see a dermatologist every year before?

“That process was just so disturbing.”

Melanoma kills more than 8,300 Americans every year, according to the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF), but about 90 percent of the cases are considered to be prevented by vigilance about the safety of the sun.

The Melanoma Institute of Australia reports that 95 percent of melanomas is caused by excessive exposure to UV radiation from the sun, but if it is caught early, 90 percent of the cases can be cured by surgery.

Melanoma is also the second most common cancer in Australian men and kills around 1,300 people in general a year in the country.

Chambers finally had answers on Christmas Eve. Australian doctors said the team in Bali had received good margins. All they had to do was remove a little more near the original site, but there was only a five percent chance that his melanoma will return.

Then he would be due to follow -ups every few months.

Chambers said his scar is about the size of his little finger and his first follow -up is in just a few weeks, and he has promised to get controls annually.

After his diagnosis, the hunting captain went to social media to talk about his test, of which he said it led to a flurry of people who shared similar stories.

Driven by what he heard, Chambers was inspired and now uses his platform to increase consciousness. He will even be the Emcee for the annual of the Melanoma Research Foundation gala In New York City in October.

He said: ‘I think my social media – I have not tried to sell things – my social media are only used for a few pillars, what education, sustainability and my health are, and I work with a few foundations.

‘When MRF made in touch with me and asked if I would participate, it is in my pillars and it is very difficult to find a foundation that has so much substance.

“They asked me to be a special guest. I don’t know how special I am, but it is actually pretty humiliating. I now get small goose bumps. ‘

The average lifelong risk of developing melanoma is around three percent – or one in 33 people – but the risk increases if a person has a family history of the disease.

Chambers had no family history.

The rates of new melanomas vary – in people younger than 50 they are stable in women and have fallen in men about one percent a year since the early 2000s.

The five -year survival percentage for melanoma is 94 percent, but that falls to 35 percent for melanomas who have spread and can be even lower, depending on far the cancer has been advanced.

Now Chambers told this website that he is the Australian mantra of “slip, slop, blow.”

He explained: ‘I stay out of the sun. Slip, slop, blow, we call it in Australia – we slide on a hat, demolish on some sunscreen and hit a shirt. ‘

And he is now more aware, he added and wanted him to go back and tell himself that he should hide, wear sunscreen and limit his daily exposure to the sun.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘Hin cancer happens … it will happen to you if you are overexposed. So minimize [time in the sun]Protect yourself, put on sunglasses every time you go out. There is one thing we know, putting on a long -sleeved shirt, putting on a hat and putting on sunglasses, you will only do well.

“So I wish I could tell myself … still continue your life, but take care of yourself.”

And the thing he hopes comes from his journey and his advocacy – making skin controls and agreements from dermatologist more accessible.

Chambers said: ‘It was very difficult to get a booking … and I was a bit anxious in that period to get more information. I would like nothing more than have skin controls available to the people who need it and cannot pay for it

“It’s easy to do. It’s a fast scan. It should not be hundreds of dollars and a waiting time for three weeks when you look at some skin cancer that you can wipe away in six months. It’s a huge thing. So let’s just have that. ‘

Annual skin controls throughout the body are recommended to see skin cancer early, but people can periodically perform self -controls at home and rather visit a dermatologist if they find something suspicious.

When performing a self -control, people must be looking for the abcdes of skin cancer.

A is for asymmetry: is the mole symmetrically completely round? Melanomas are often uneven and have different size and formed halves.

B is for border: does the mole have clear limits? Melanomas are more likely to have irregular or serrated edges.

C is for color: is the color the same in the mole? Melanomas are more likely to have multiple shades.

D is for diameter: how large is the mole? They usually have to have the size of the end of a pencil and melanomas are usually larger.

Finally, E is for evolving: Has the mole changed over time? Most benign moles stay from year to year, but melanomas can grow in size and grow and change colors over the time of colors.