Woman, 38, has 100 moles removed after melanoma diagnosis: I wear my scars proudly [Video]

Two months after her mom died from melanoma, Theresa Kurtz was stunned to receive her own skin cancer diagnosis.

She had one confirmed melanoma and three severely abnormal moles that were on the verge of turning into it. The ordeal would ultimately lead doctors to remove and biopsy 100 suspicious moles on her body.

Kurtz was just 28 at the time. She had made an appointment to see a dermatologist to fulfill her mom’s wish to go see a skin doctor.

“She had always wanted me to go get checked. It took her death for me to take that seriously,” Kurtz, who lives in Monument, Colorado, and is now 38, tells TODAY.com.

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“I was still grieving my mom and figuring out life without her, and then to hear the same thing — at first, there was a lot of anger. …