Kara Giovenco's battle with skin cancer led to a life-saving mission. Picture supplied

When Miranda mother-of-two Kara Giovenco was diagnosed with her first melanoma, her youngest child was just one year old.

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The news shattered her world. "The news broke me, especially being a new mum at the time I was petrified," she said. "I had pigmentation on my ear which I thought was because of pregnancy. It started getting bigger and darker when I was pregnant with my second child. It was melanoma in situ."

While this earliest, non-invasive stage of skin cancer is highly curable because it is confined entirely to the top layer of the skin, the diagnosis changed her relationship with the outdoors forever.

Instead of letting fear dictate her life, the special education teacher, who turns 40 on June 26, chose to channel her experience into a massive positive. After facing four melanomas in four years, Mrs Giovenco and her husband Guy founded Ombra and Sole - a sun safety brand born from their own family's daily struggles.

Like many parents, Mrs Giovenco found herself constantly chasing flyaway hats, replacing broken sunglasses, and desperately trying to find protective gear that her kids didn't fight to wear. "I wanted to do something educational and put all my energy into something positive so I tapped into the creative avenue of the business," she said.

Kara Giovenco faced a terrifying diagnosis. Now she's protecting families across Australia. Picture supplied

The couple set out to prove that sun protection could be attractive. The brand name translates to Shade and Sun, but in a serendipitous twist of fate, the initials O & S also stand for the couple's two children, Oscar and Scarlett.

What started as a mission to keep their kids safe under the harsh Australian sky has evolved into a booming national brand. Today, Ombra and Sole products are stocked in more than 20 stores across Australia and New Zealand.

For Mrs Giovenco, the business is about much more than just selling stylish hats and sunglasses; it is a vehicle for real change. Having endured part of her earlobe being removed, multiple surgeries, continuing scans, and years of treatment, she has now been clear for almost five years. To ensure other families avoid the same trauma, the brand proudly donates $1 from every hat sold to the Australian Skin Cancer Foundation to fund crucial melanoma research and raise awareness about early detection.

With winter setting in, Mrs Giovenco warns that parents cannot afford to become complacent. She said UV levels in Australia frequently remain high enough to cause permanent skin damage even on cooler, cloudy, or overcast days.

It comes following the death of world-renowned pathologist and 2024 Australian of the Year, Richard Scolyer, who died at age 59 of brain cancer. He helped save the lives of thousands of people through his groundbreaking work on skin cancer, undertaking a world-first experimental treatment. "He was a pioneer in the melanoma world and many survivors, have been touched with his passing," Ms Giovenco said.