'Zero deaths': Dubbo families break record in march for melanoma treatment

Paul Reid's son, Tim Reid, died in 2013 at the age of only 29 after melanoma spread to his lymph nodes.

Since then, immunotherapy treatment has progressed and the prognosis for cases like Tim's is much more positive.

Mr Reid was among over 250 people who met at the River Foreshore on Saturday, March 9 to participate in the annual Melanoma March, which raises money for Melanoma Institute Australia's vital research.

"The real reason you march is so somebody might get some benefit out of the treatments that are there now and the treatments that will be there in the future, which heads towards the [institute's] 'zero deaths from melanoma' target," Mr Reid told the Daily Liberal.

A whopping $43,000 was raised for the institute, up significantly on the previous year's record $27,000 tally. The first event in 2022 raised $20,000.

"The feeling was really nice," Mr Reid said of the event.

"Families who had significant involvement or had somebody involved or had melanoma themselves or were friends of the families [participated] ... It had a really nice spirit to it."

Some families wore t-shirts showing the photographs of their loved one who had died with melanoma, and others held posters.

"You think about what might have been if [Tim] had been around today with the advances in treatments," Mr Reid said.

"So many more ... people survive from stage 4 melanoma onwards because the treatments are so targeted and so much more advanced."

Mr Reid will march again next year alongside a strong core group of local families who have been touched by melanoma, many of whom have become friends and shoulders to lean on.

"Some people's family members are still battling melanoma and some have lost the fight, but we feel it's really worthwhile and it's a nice group to work with," he said.

The Dubbo Melanoma March was co-developed by the Beggs family whose daughter Carrie-Ann died of melanoma aged 43.

Also marching was Emily Nettle's family who supported her mum Toni McMillan who has been as been battling melanoma since 2007 when a bleeding mole on her back was diagnosed as cancerous.