A young woman from Texas left an urgent warning before she died of melanoma last week. She hopes her story can save others.
Alondra Sierra said she was just 19 when she noticed a freckle growing on her forehead. No one told her it could be a problem. It went untreated for too long.
“Now I live with stage four metastatic melanoma, fighting for my life every day, searching for treatments that might save me,” the 26-year-old said in a video posted for melanoma awareness month in May.
Before she died, Sierra had undergone surgeries, immunology, radiation, and other therapies to try to keep her cancer at bay.
“Skin cancer doesn’t care how young you are. It doesn’t care how healthy you feel. It doesn’t wait. So please listen: get uncomfortable. Get checked,” she said in the video.
“You have to get your entire skin checked. Because I don’t want your story to become like mine.”
Alondra’s story
In 2019, SIerra noticed a freckle started to form on her forehead. The color changed from light to dark, she said in a TikTok video.
Cancer didn’t even seem like a possibility to her. It took three years before she learned she had melanoma.
Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer because it grows quickly and can spread to other organs. It is the deadliest skin cancer, killing over 8,500 people in the US every year.
It’s one of the most common cancers for young women under 30, and is becoming more common.
By the time Sierra got her diagnosis in 2022, the cancer had “grown rapidly” and she tried several procedures and treatments to control the cancer.
“I probably wouldn’t have gone through so much if I had just seen a medical professional or a dermatologist for my yearly skin and nail check,” she said.
In 2024, she learned the cancer had spread throughout her entire body, including her skull, pelvis, spine, ribs, back, stomach, she said.
She started on immunotherapy, but in January, she said this “didn’t work.” In June, her family said she started doing radiation treatment on her brain.
A final message
Over the past 4 years, Sierra had made it a personal mission to spread awareness about skin cancer, the need for sun protection, and the importance of skin checkups.
She promoted products that helped block UV and spoke out against artificial UV, like sunblock, lasers, and nail lamps. She fought to educate others even while fighting her own battle against cancer.
“I wish this month meant celebration. But instead it means survival. And unfortunately, that is my reality right now,” Sierra said in her May video. “May 1st, the start of melanoma awareness month. For many, it’s just another month. For me, it is prevention, it is advocacy. It is life, it is survival.”
She encourages people of all ages to check the largest organ in the body, the skin, thoroughly.
“That mole, that freckle, that one spot that changes color, shape, or size.You notice it, but you delay checking it. From your scalp to behind your ears to your back, your breasts, your feet, your genitals — every inch matters.”
Dermatologists promote the “ABCDE criteria” to look out for melanoma. Early signs could be spots that have “A”symmetry, “B”order irregularity, “C”olor variation, “D”iameter larger than 6mm, and “E”volving shape or size.
Sierra only recently graduated college in 2024 — the same year she learned the cancer had spread across her body. In March, she became a US citizen after living in this country for 23 years. She had only finished radiation days prior, and was in a wheelchair.
She hopes that by giving others the information she wish she’d had, they might catch cancer earlier than she did.
“Early detection isn’t just important, it’s everything,” she said.
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