To tell you all to check your moles! (and wear good SPF)

[Bearpawk]

Just a reminder, as I'm a traditionally 'unlikely' skin cancer patient, currently recovering from my 2nd surgery from what started as an innocuous mole. It's been very unpleasant and had huge impact on my life.

CHECK YOUR MOLES REGULARLY and go to your GP if you notice any changes - blotchy in colour, irregular outlines, enlarging, uneven surface.

I was very naive about the seriousness of melanoma, that it could spread to other parts of your body and kill you.... never been a traditional sun worshipper, not particularly fair skinned, and have a below average amount of sunshine holidays compared to my social circle. I'd be lying if I said I'd never been sunburned but it wasn't frequent.... guess it only takes one occasion.

Than you for reading x

I'd add that it's not just moles. I had a sore patch on my face that scabbed over, scab fell off and open wound on repeat. It was an invasive skin cancer. I now have another one following the same pattern and am waiting for dermatology appointment in May.

Hope you're ok @Winterisalmostover and get the all clear soon.... have they treated your first one successfully ? Was it a carcinoma?

I'm wondering about getting moles mapped actually. I'm fair and wear spf a lot. When I lived in the US I was covered to use a skin clinic and they checked everything. It was the most innocuous- looking one on my finger they were slightly concerned about and got it removed just in case.

Can i ask, was the mole where you got sunburned or elsewhere? I had a terrible burn once and still wondering if it could have consequences.

If you're not struggling for cash and have lots of moles/ fair skin i'd get mapped for sure. Some health insurance packages include it now.
I've since spotted suspicious moles on a few people, it's one of those things you see everywhere once you've experienced it !

My melanoma was on my lower shin which has made the surgery and recovery a bit of a pain as there's not much loose skin to play with.

I'm sure I've been a bit pink there before but the instances of sunburn I recall having when younger was in the top half of my body. Shoulders/ chest etc. So it's not an area I'd have expected to develop a melanoma if that makes sense.

I've attached a good resource which may be useful to some, mine was a combo of b and c.

I really don't want to panic anyone, lots of folk have biopsies which come back negative but better safe than sorry!

This is an invasive skin carcinoma. Be aware that not all cancers are moles. Sorry the skin looks so awful but it's magnified.

God I’ve no idea how you tell! That lady photo looks like nothing to me.

I had some seborrheic warts on my back that look so similar to the photos above abd yet they are completely harmless.

*last photo

It's so hard to tell what are just 'age spots' and what is concerning, especially when you have to try to see it in the mirror or take a photo of yourself.

I wish it were easier to find a clinic where you could just go and get them to look at any little spot, because it's so hard to get to a GP these days and over the phone/video doesn't really work.

I thought Boots used to do some kind of mole checking service but I think it's stopped

Ive noticed that several moles have become more 3 dimensional if that makes sense. Ones that used to be flat or very slightly raised are now kind of wart-like. (On my face, neck and back) I just thought it was due to age. (I'm 45) I've been considering -budget permitting - looking into having them removed from a vanity point of view but maybe I should get them checked from a health perspective.

I have to say I'm pretty bad at using sunscreen and although I don't sunbathe regularly I do get burnt at least once most summers from just being outside for long periods of time.

Thanks for this post.

I'm high risk for melanoma, I had yearly foreign holidays as a child in the 80s and 90s when sun block was factor 20. I was burnt every holiday no matter how much my mum tried to prevent it, it was par for the course with my pale Irish skin. I also used sunbeds in my twenties when sadly my appearance was more important than my health. My sister who has stayed out of the sun as an adult was had basal cell so after reading this I'm going to have my moles mapped.

Please get them checked out to be on the safe side. I had what I thought was a harmless wart on my face - it turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma. Cancer, yes, but fortunately not melanoma. It took less than an hour to remove and all I have to show for it now is some slight scarring.

Totally agree with you highlighting this OP. It needs to be taken seriously and for people to act quickly.
I have seen it spread quickly to organs and kill a relative. It started out as scabs more than moles. In 6 months they were gone.

I just had a dark, irregular lesion on my face checked and thankfully it was fine. But skin cancer is very much on my radar as my dad had a basal cell carcinoma removed and my mum has had several squamous cell carcinomas removed, one of which was on her scalp and grew at an alarming rate. I know these are less serious than melanoma but they do need to be removed as they have the potential to metastasise over time.

Good to remind everyone OP!

@Fizbosshoes are you able to get a gp appointment to get them checked out ?
They usually just refer you to a dermatologist who looks at them under a special microscope thing so it's no big deal to begin with.

Think I had a name change fail earlier 🤪

@Anotherschooldilemma I'm sorry to hear about your relative: when I was diagnosed I had no idea how serious melanoma was. Thought they'd chop the mole off then job done. No idea it could have spread, nor did anyone I told "oh well at least it's only skin cancer" is a common response

Just wanted to say, when you go to get a mole checked at dermatology, they check ALL your moles! My gp referred me to dermatology for a funny mole...when I went to the hospital they looked at it, said it was fine but then asked me to take off all my clothes to check everywhere else (then decided to remove one of the others).

Obviously it's good I got checked all over and I'm grateful but I wish I'd have known in advance so I wasn't taken off guard. So now you know (if you didn't already!)

This is a mole that will likely kill me. I ignored it , then I realised it had grown. There are 3 months between these photos. I was already at stage 3.

Great to be raising awareness of skin cancer.
I'm extremely fair skinned and have lots of moles on my back and arms and legs. Got sunburnt a fair bit as a kid unfortunately.
Have recently been referred to dermatology for a mole on the back of my thigh that I noticed had become raised and had bled a few times. Also felt some on my back were raised now where they weren't before but the nurse reassured me that's due to seborrheic keratosis, but I'm glad to read that they will probably check everywhere when I have my appointment.

Please can someone recommend where to get regular mole mapping privately. GP is useless

YANBU my grandad and my dad had skin cancer.

I'm very pale and I noticed a mole of kine had suddenly become raised and itchy. My GP told me I wasted his time by getting it checked :( he barely even looked at it.

That was last month. Never felt so humiliated!

Get well soon OP x

Who the fuck has voted YABU to this? 😳
Some people are extremely uneducated about skin cancer. Hope you don’t have any recurrence OP and keep spreading the word.

Following too as I have loads of moles on my tummy and getting more and more all the time and they all look different (some flat, some raised, some a bit dry/crusty, some not) and I'd literally be going to the GP every month if I went every time a new one appeared that didn't look like the rest

I’ve had a lot of “dysplastic” moles removed - where they are abnormal but not cancerous. All have been darker than my other moles - a very dark brown/black and all have been a long and thin shape rather than round.

I’m sensible in the sun now but was a sunbed user in the 90’s - everyone did it then. So cross with myself now!

That’s good! It didn’t happen in my case, but it’s as well to be prepared.