Mother and daughter battle skin cancer, their message for everyone

A Wisconsin family, with two members battling skin cancer, has a message for everyone reading:

It’s never too early to get screened for melanoma.

Sheri Anderson, of Osceola, is one of those family members. Anderson said one of the hardest parts of their journey with cancer was telling her daughter, Jenni Tacheny, she had to be moved into hospice.

Tacheny has stage 4 desmoplastic melanoma.

“It’s pretty scary,” Tacheny, a mother of four, said. “You don’t think of skin cancer, and if you do, it’s not one of the bad cancers, right? Wrong.”

The main reason for sharing their story with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS was to stress the importance of screening.

While there are warning signs, for Tacheny, it was headaches that brought her to the hospital where doctors found a brain tumor.

According to Allina Health, there are steps people can take at home, but the best is to see a specialist for a screening.

“We do see a lot of melanoma. The great news is that if caught early, it’s very easily treatable,” Dr. Liz Farhat, Allina Health’s lead dermatologist, said.

There is a GoFundMe for the Tacheny family. There’s also a spaghetti dinner benefit on Feb. 19, at Peace Lutheran Church, in Dresser, Wisconsin.