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

Melanoma UK have created an app for skin mapping. It's called skin vision and you can map your full body at home. There's a team of dermatologists that review your images and offer advice.
My dermatologist recommended downloading it after a suspicious mole turned out to be melanoma. It's not free but I'm happy to pay for reassurance and peace of mind.

@WitsYerHing I didn't know about that app - thanks for sharing!

My local private skin clinic also does mole mapping.

I'm sorry to hear that @yetii - may I ask where you're at with treatment ?
All the best to you, it's a frightening time isn't it x

Hi :) it's terrifying not going to lie!

I'm awaiting a WLE and node clearance then onto immunotherapy

Thanks for raising this really important issue. DH is fair skinned and hair, he has developed areas of ‘dry’ raised patches on his face and hands. He now regularly sees a dermatologist and wears factor 50.
It’s important that men take care of their skin, they generally have short hair and don’t wear SPF make up. It’s common for carcinomas to occur on their ears.

My husband, now 69, has always tanned easily, we only ever got one weeks holiday abroad a year, due to work commitments, and he worked indoors. A couple of years ago he got a scratch on his nose, which he thought was caused by not taking his specs off when he put a jumper on. It healed up, but came back. He went to the docs who referred him to a specialist. It was a Basal Cell Carcinoma which was cut out and he had a skin graft from his shoulder. When he went back to the surgeon he was told the abnomal cells went right to the edge of the bit cut out, so further surgery was required. In October, he had Mohs surgery, which involve taking slices off his nose, checking it in the lab, and if there are dodgy cells, repeat the process till they have it all. They then had to reconstruct his nose using cartledge from both his ears, and a forehead flap. This involved cutting a patch out of his forehead, leaving it connected to the blood supply, flipping it over and rebuliding the nose. It looked horrific, he was under general anaesthetic for 9 hours for the first op, and another 2 hours 3 weeks later. A 3rd op will be carried out later this year to resculpt the nose. The nose is healing well, and the hole in his head where the patch was taken is also healing, but he has to go every week to have it checked over 4 months after the op. He is lucky as BCC is the least dangerous type of skin cancer, but his message is use spf50 and wear a hat
I reckon about half of our contemporaries have had to have bccs removed. They are very common. If you like medical.videos look up forehead flap reconstruction on youtube. It is a fascinating process.

@Lincslady53 wow a 9 hour surgery that's mega, hope he is doing ok now.

@yetii your treatment must be in a slightly different order to mine, I'm awaiting results of node biopsy and WLE to get staged.
I've heard good things about the new immunotherapy treatments, hope it's effective for you

It really is one of those things you never think will happen to me. Even when I noticed my mole looked different it took me a good couple of months to decide to book a GP appt, thinking it was nothing serious. Now I know the ONLY reason a mole will ever change like that is cancer.

I have lots of little moles, some slightly raised, some irregular shaped but always have been!
I have a small dark almost black one that I've never noticed before (I don't think anyway) on my chest, wondering now if I should get it checked ?

What is the name of this app also ?

Yeah just after diagnosis of stage 2 (Breslow) I developed a really swollen lymph node so had it drained and biopsied, and it already showed metastatic disease in my lymph node. So I'm having the whole lot removed at the wle. I think it grew so much because I had an infection but they sampled it anyway and I found out it had spread to that lymph node. X

Lincslady53 Sorry to hear about your DHs experience. But thank you for posting. I am continually telling our male ADCs to protect their skin. Fortunately one lived in OZ for a time where skin protection is very high on the agenda.

Thanks for this

YANBU OP.

My dad died of melanoma. He had the mole removed from his back, was fine for about 3 years and then very suddenly became catastrophically ill. Although they had removed the melanoma, they had obviously not managed to get all of the margins out and it had silently travelled to his brain. I can’t adequately describe how shockingly fast it all happened, and what a devastating illness it was.

I am super cautious as a result and pay to have my moles scanned and mapped every three years at my local laser skin clinic. It costs a few hundred quid but I save up to cover it.

And yes, as others have said, just one episode of sunburn in childhood can be enough to do the damage.

I never saw my dad sunburnt. He had the sort of skin that went very brown very easily. Apparently he had been sunburnt on his back as a child once or twice.

Also worth noting that Sunbeds are a complete no no. I hope not many people use them now but tanning salons still seem to exist and are legal which blows my mind.

Funnily enough I have an appointment to see a dermatologist tomorrow to look at a new mole that has appeared in the last few weeks and is very itchy. I couldn’t get a GP appointment, the receptionist said no face to face appointments were available in the next six weeks!! I explained I was concerned about skin cancer, she shrugged her shoulders and said “sorry there’s no appointments for six weeks”.

I managed to get a private Dermatologist appointment, even he had a waiting list, but he’s had a cancellation for tomorrow which I’ve taken gladly!

Please also check any sunspots. I had a pale brown sunspot on my temple for years. I have noticed this is a common area for them . Anyway I noticed small darker spots within the sunspot but still thought it was nothing. One of my sons who I hadn’t seen for ages commented on it so thought I’d better get it checked out. Long story short it was skin cancer and I needed two operations as they didn’t get enough margin the first time. No further treatment but SP50 on my face every day. I’ve never been a sun worshipper however do have fair skin and spend a lot of time outside gardening and walking.

My melanoma was a regular mole on my forearm that I noticed had got slightly bigger (3mm) and darker.

I started noticing it more but it didn't look like anything I saw on the internet (didn't fit the ABCD table) but GP said it was an ugly duckling as it stood out amongst the other moles on my arm. Eventually had a biopsy and it was a 1A melanoma.

I used the SkinVision app but it said my melanoma was nothing to worry about so don't rely on it 100%. If you have concerns, discuss with your GP.

I used the SkinVision app but it said my melanoma was nothing to worry about so don't rely on it 100%. If you have concerns, discuss with your GP.

My mole wasn't typical for melanoma either, just a small freckle that had slightly changed colour.

The app does state that it won't be 100% accurate and if you have any concerns about the appearance of a mole or if there has been any changes then go and get checked by a professional. It's a great way to monitor any existing moles and visually compare any changes over time.

@MissyB1 I'm sorry you took a while to get an appointment, mine took 2 months too as GP does not give pre booked appts anymore, you just have to phone on the morning and wait in the queue for around an hour 'if it's urgent' which meant taking the morning off work for me. Then when I finally got an appt I tested positive for covid to had to rebook. I do wonder if that delay could kill me.

I do this once a year privately (though my mother tells me it used to be offered on the NHS back in her day!).

Just wanted to pick up what you said about the innocuous looking mole - I've had moles that to my eye were very worrying because they had many of the 'ABCD' signs, that my dermatologist has taken one look at and said it's totally fine. I've then also had other moles that, like yours, to me looked completely normal that my dermatologist wanted to investigate further.

I really think it's worth investing in mole mapping if you can if you're very mole-y like I am!

What could this be on mole please