Tamworth to host Melanoma March to fundraise for Melanoma Institute Australia research

Now, he's hoping the community will step up to help stomp out skin cancer.

The Melanoma March will be hosted in Tamworth on Sunday to take steps towards research and fundraising for the Melanoma Institute Australia.

Mr Brook said he "owed" the institute his life, after he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in 2019.

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"The stigma is it's an old farmer that wears a singlet everyday, he's the guy that gets melanoma," he said.

"How does that happen to someone like myself?"

With the help of the institute, Mr Brook was able to access trials and immunotherapy drugs that would see him cancer free four years down the track.

"The more funding we can put in, the more trials they can run, the more research they can do, and hopefully more lives we can save," he said.

After a lifetime of working in the sun, without even a "tree to sit under at smoko", Ron Carr was diagnosed with melanoma after discovering a small spot on his calf.

Three years on, the Tamworth Rotary Youth Club officer, is keen to educate the next generation about sun safety.

"That's when you do the damage, at an early age," he said.

"It comes back to bite you later on."

Because of the nature of his work, Mr Carr has continued to have multiple sun spots removed, and said he was "grateful" for the institute.

The march will start at 9am on the village green at Bicentennial Park on Sunday.

Money raised from the march will go towards identifying and supporting advanced melanoma patients experiencing fear and anxiety.

Registrations and donations can be made online.

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