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Dr Sharon Hutchison was a friend and colleague in our melanoma research group at UHI. She was researching the genetic predisposition to melanoma and how the genomic changes within melanomas influenced the body's immune response to them. Sharon was an excellent, thorough and enthusiastic researcher who was not only very dedicated to her projects, but also to promoting sun safety and active skin checks, in public forums.

Sharon was herself diagnosed with a cutaneous melanoma at the start of 2019, which arose from an existing mole on her neck. Her melanoma was particularly aggressive and despite receiving the most up-to-date treatment options, she died at the end of December 2019. Sharon is a much missed friend and member of our melanoma research team.

MyMelanoma (https://www.mymelanomastudy.org/) is a new initiative that is aiming to recruit a large number of people who have been diagnosed with a melanoma, in order to answer the questions most important to patients. This is an ambitious and exciting new study that will be the largest melanoma research project undertaken in the UK. The first study to take place at UHI as part of MyMelanoma will focus on the genetic predisposition to melanoma, asking the question: why are some people more likely to develop a melanoma? The funds raised here will be specifically towards this research project at UHI and is a study Sharon would have been working on herself.

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