Elizabeth Smith hadn't paid much attention to the mole on her shoulder until 1989, while vacationing at Niagara Falls with her family. The strange spot had changed shape unexpectedly and her shoulder hurt.
The diagnosis was melanoma, a potentially deadly cancer, but one that can be treated easily if caught early.
Smith was lucky - her doctors operated and said "they got it all," her son-in-law Robert Powers remembers. She didn't even need any follow-up treatment, he said, and for five years afterward, when she went in for a check-up, nothing out of the ordinary was discovered.
Nineteen years later, Smith was working at the Sun and Shade Garden Center, the store she and her husband owned in Lookout Valley, when she began having problems with her hip.
But this time the diagnosis was radically different - the melanoma had reappeared, and this time it had spread throughout her body.
Smith died a couple of weeks later, on May 10, Mother's Day, Powers said. Her husband of 45 years, Don, was devastated.
In an effort to raise awareness about melanoma, he started annual fundraisers that for the past four years have taken the form of 5K races. The next will be Saturday.
But now the family has decided to do more. They have donated the money they have raised thus far to CHI Memorial, in hopes of founding a new Center for Excellence at the hospital to fight melanoma.
"We expect the contribution from the Smith family fund to total $100,000 in the first year with a goal of them raising $1 million in the next three to five years," said Jennifer Nicely, president of the CHI Memorial Foundation.
Memorial already has programs to deal with skin cancer, but the Smiths' funding will allow the hospital to add additional staffing and increase its outreach efforts.
As the next step, Memorial hopes to bring in a dermatologist and oncologist, so patients can make one appointment to see both specialists, according to Kathy Dittmar, service line administrator for cancer services at the hospital.
Eventually, Dittmar said, Memorial wants to launch a full-fledged Center for Excellence similar to its MaryEllen Locher Breast Cancer Center, focusing on melanoma.
About 76,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with melanoma this year, according to the American Cancer Society, and 10,000 people will die from it.
If caught at Stage 1, the survival rate is about 95 percent, but if it reaches Stage IV, the rate drops to 15 percent or less, according to the ACS.
Doctors emphasize that everyone should consider an annual checkup with a dermatologist, particularly if any spots or moles on the body have changed shape or size. The disease kills twice as many men as women, and is about 25 times more likely to affect whites than blacks, and five times more likely to occur in whites than in Hispanics, according to the cancer society.
"We are pleased to partner with the Smith family in the development of the Elizabeth R. Smith Melanoma Program," said CHI Memorial CEO Larry Schumacher. "Melanoma can be curable when found early. This program will provide education about prevention and detection as well as treatment for those who receive a melanoma diagnosis."
Contact staff writer Steve Johnson at sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, 423-757-6673, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/noogahealth.