Moley The Snail (normal anatomy)

* For medicolegal reasons these virtual mole checks should go through an official route where personal details and medical history is taken and the pictures of moles are made by special instructions from Dr Bela. 

The whole NFT range consisting of 200 individual pieces will be available in Opensea.io on the secondary market.

Dr Bela 

Dermatologist

Founder of Melanoma Snail Collection NFTs

Educate. Inspire. Save lives. NFTsavesliv.es

NFT #001 shows the normal anatomy of the skin and an explanation NFT #002 introduces the main characters: the Sun as the most important environmental factor triggering melanoma appearance. The body of the snail represents the layers of the skin. Eyes represents a hair follicle and the house displays the events visible in a mole on the skin.

Moley The Snail (melanoma development - animated)

NFT #003 is an animation that shows the whole melanoma initiation and development process ending in an ulcerated tumour with spreading metastases. NFT #004 shows the stages in a still image format and #005 explains the events.

Moley The Snail (melanoma development - stages explained)

NFT #004 and #005 show and explain how melanoma formation is triggered by the damaging UV rays from the sun, turning melanoma stem cells into full-blown tumours at the bottom of a hair follicle. It shows the spread of the growing tumour in the epidermis (top layer of the skin), then entering into the dermis, showing up on the skin (house of the snail) and finally spreading metastases, ulceration and bleeding. Early detection is key to survival.

The whole process enfolds slowly, taking long years, hence the snail analogy. We have time to catch it if we know what to look for.

Real life examples (for the stages shown on NFT #004-005)

Stage 1: Sunburn

Stage 2-3: not visible on the skin

Stage 4: melanoma becomes visible

Stage 5: melanoma becomes invasive

Late stage melanoma

spreading metastases

Find them. Save them. (individual countries)

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NFT #066 There are 16,500 new melanoma cases in the UK.

The country is made with cell-art. Internal cells are showing the distribution of the population. All possible skin colours are represented and as my full support to the LGBTQ+ community, I also used the colours of their flag.

Notice that, melanoma appears only in the caucasian skin colour as it is the case in real life.

As my and the UK's support to Ukraine there is a version with cells representing the colours of their flag.

Ugly duckling (well known analogy from melanoma educational materials)

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NFT #033 represents the well known 'Ugly duckling' from educational campaigns about the warning signs of melanoma. It is created with cell-art, showing atypical features compared to the normal duckling (NFT#034).

While the duckling represents a benign mole, the ugly duckling draws our attention to moles looking different from the other ones. 

NFT #034 the Duckling. You can see normal skin cells with some pigment producing melanocytes in the wings, tail and back of the head. The 'normal' duckling represents benign, unsuspicious moles. 

It is worth knowing that the higher the number of someone's moles, the higher the risk for melanoma, and when an ugly duckling is noted among them, one should go to the doctor immediately.

NFT #035 the Melanoma Duckling. This character doesn't exist in the melanoma educational literature. Dr Bela created it to this NFT range highlighting the differences between the normal, suspicious and full-blown cancerous lesions. 

For the layperson though, it doesn't make any difference whether something is only suspicious or cancerous, it needs immediate medical attention straight away.

Utilities

Utilities of the first 200 NFTs (phase 1) yet to be finalised.

The first 50 owners can have a free check 2 of their moles per year with Dr Bela*

2.5% of each sale goes to a cancer related charity.

2.5% of each sale goes to a 'best use of money' charity via GiveWell's Maximum Impact Fund.

Creators