Hollings Horizons Winter 2025 - Flipbook - Page 18
Maybe God is using me as a vessel
to look at people and say,
'You need to get that checked.'
Carol Helton
CAROL HELTON
MELANOMA
Carol Helton has been doing hair for 38 years.
Tuesday through Saturday, you can find her in her
Orangeburg salon, chatting up customers, clipping
hair and sharing her thoughts about what the
South Carolina Gamecocks are doing.
Lately, though, she’s been talking about something
else: melanoma.
Helton was diagnosed with melanoma after she
went to see a doctor about a lifelong mole that
had started changing. After surgery, she’s been
declared cancer-free. Now, she wants to make sure
that others don’t ignore suspicious moles or spots.
That’s important, said her doctor, Jeffrey Sutton,
M.D., because even though sun exposure over
many decades is one of the main risk factors for
melanoma, melanomas can also develop in places
that don’t get sun exposure.
He wants everyone to get regular full-body
skin checks.
“The full body skin exam, to me, is analogous to
the screening mammogram looking for breast
cancer or the colonoscopy to screen for colon
cancer,” he said. “If you find these lesions early,
they’re very treatable and curable.”
STORIES OF
Inspiration
16
HOLLINGS HORIZONS Winter 2025
