Stawell's Graham Carr implores his community to check their bodies for spots to grow awareness of skin cancer

About 2000 Australians die from skin cancer each year.

Those are the harrowing statistics shared by the Cancer Council of Australia.

With figures so alarming, Graham Carr has pleaded with others to check their skin, just as he did.

And lucky he did.

Standing in the mirror one day having a shave Mr Carr noticed a long-standing sore that was on top of his head had changed.

"I had a lump on my head which was there for a few months," he said.

"I used to get hit on top of the head getting in and out of cars by the little knob on top of the caps/hats and it used to scab me.

"Luckily I was keeping an eye on my head."

Mr Carr, from Stawell in Victoria's Wimmera region, didn't wait and booked into his doctor which took a few days to get in.

"The doctor referred me to a skin specialist," he said.

"The specialist had a look at it and said he wasn't certain what the spot initially was, but advised it was best to get it removed.

"I asked to get it tested. Three days later he was on the phone. I was at stage four cancer and it was melanoma."

Mr Carr was in shock. He wore a hat all his life. How did this happen?

It was November 2021 and Mr Carr got the news no one wants to hear.

"If you aren't down there within a few weeks this is going to explode and take off like nothing was what the doctor told me," Mr Carr said.

"It was aggressive.

"That's how quickly your life can change and that's why you need to take care of yourself."

Cancer doesn't discriminate - that is a statement Mr Carr firmly believes.

"It was a whirlwind how fast everything happened," Mr Carr said.

"I reassured my family I was going to be ok. I really believed that."

Mr Carr was a bus driver for 44 years and always wore a hat.

"I would always get told off for wearing a hat inside as well," he said.

"I can't put cancer down just to sunlight completely. I'm no doctor but there are kids down there, at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre where I go, and they are too young to be out in the sun and they've got cancer - and really bad cancer.

"It is an eye-opener being down there getting treatment and the number of people getting treated and cared for blows your mind.

"I've been on the five of the six floors down there and it's always totally full."

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Mr Carr had his operation in December 2021 - taking the skin off his leg and placing it onto his head.

"I had 160 stitches right around my head and right down both sides of my chin to my lymph nodes," he said.

"I still have treatment once a month with medicine that searches for any other cancer within my body and attacks it.

"It makes me very, very tired. It's given me a rash and makes my muscles ache and I end up very sore.

"But that's nothing compared to the other side of it."

Mr Carr said he hoped by sharing his story other Australians would think twice about putting off getting something checked.

"You hear about getting it and you hear about people not looking," he said.

"That would have played on my mind and made me check myself more often.

"I've been telling 100s of people. I'm the greatest advert out there now.

"There are plenty of others within Stawell that are in a bad way as well so I don't want people to think I'm sharing the story for me, I wanted to share my story to help others."