Masja

Tell us what you’d like us to know about yourself:

My name is Masja Annoesjka Ros. I live in The Netherlands with my husband and our two pre-teenage daughters. I was born and raised in Amsterdam but have lived abroad twice in my life. I had a year in Ireland as a kid and again in Israel as a young adult. I am a creative thinker who just loves the magical feeling I get when I ‘join the dots’ and spot an opportunity. I have been diagnosed with skin cancer twice in my life, and this was really what drove me to become a ‘Ginger on a mission’ and a skinfluencer-wannabe.

Can you tell us about your cancer journey and the work you do today to raise awareness?

When I was 38 my friend Kim discovered a suspicious looking mole on my back while we were on holiday in Sicily. I couldn’t see the spot myself but she told me that it looked weird and that I should have it checked by a doctor. I am glad she convinced me to take action because it turned out to be melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer and the one that can easily spread to other parts of your body. I was very lucky that it had been caught early. Other than two operations, I didn’t require any further treatment. Kim had literally saved my life. The second time I got hit by melanoma was nine years later. This time I noticed a small lump in my armpit. Long story short: the cancer had already spread to my lymph nodes. This time around however, I was not so lucky. It was a really tough period in my life. I was caring for two small children of 5 and 7 years old while having over 50 hospital visits in one year. It goes without saying, that it took me another year just to process the emotional rollercoaster of what I had been through. But I survived!

In a way, my cancer journey has made me more conscious about many things. The feeling of gratitude towards family and friends as well as my renewed appreciation of nature, is immense. Suddenly I was able to let go of a lot of insecurities, shyness and fears that I had been dealing with for many years. It felt as if I had been given another free ride on the merry go round called life. This made me determined to do something meaningful, so I signed up as a volunteer for the ‘Dutch Melanoma Patient Foundation’. At first as a member of the editorial board and later, also as its social media manager. Besides volunteering, I eventually got back in the saddle as a ‘freelance creative’ and did concept and content creation for awareness campaigns such as; ‘Check, Check, Check Your Body’ and ‘Sun Safe in the Snow’ and also ‘Sun Safe You’, which is ongoing the whole year round on the Instagram account ‘Discover Your Spot’.