Skin deep

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
Carter is the fourth of six children in the Morrissey family and he was born with a giant nevus.
A nevus is most commonly known as a birthmark or mole, but one in every 500,000 children is born with a severe form of congenital melanocytic nevus, where the birthmark can cover more than two per cent of the body area.
Because oil and sweat glands don’t form properly within the nevus, overheating can cause severe discomfort.
His mum Clare said when he was born in a planned homebirth in May 2006, Carter was taken to Brisbane Hospital later in the day to see the head pediatrician. She had noticed the nevus, but she was more concerned that Carter was healthy.
“The top surgeons in Brisbane hadn’t seen it before. They only knew what they had read from books,” she said.
“They said just take him home and love him.”
Clare said her husband began searching for support groups and information on other children born with a nevus, but they knew they had to move back to Melbourne where the Royal Children’s Hospital had a team who specialised in birthmarks.
She said Carter had his first operation to remove the nevus when he was 18 months old.
“We decided to go ahead with expansion, where a strong balloon with a port is put on a string (under the skin, next to the nevus) and like a pregnant belly it gets bigger and bigger and expands, and then when it’s the right size the nevus is removed and the extra skin is pulled over,” Clare said.
“We feel kind of torn because he looks so different and it was our decision.”
For now Carter is happy and healthy. He will have more operations throughout the rest of his life.
Every two years the Australian nevus support group puts on The Big Bash, a conference and gathering for children with nevus and their families to come together for real-life support from others as well as learning the latest research and ways to deal with the condition.
Clare said it was also a chance for the children to get together with other children who had nevus so they could talk among themselves.
The next Big Bash is in Adelaide in January 2011. All the families are fund-raising to help with the cost for those who cannot afford to go, and Clare is holding a raffle with community support from local businesses.
The raffle will be drawn at Koha Community Café after 6pm on Thursday, 25 November 2010.
People can buy raffle tickets on the night or donate online at www.nevussupport.com