Success stories

[laurenb12]

please give me some success stories, or even successful outcomes. I’m awaiting a dermatology appointment for a freckle on my cheek that I’ve had since a child, it’s recently turned black and got slightly bigger.

I can’t eat or sleep, I’m on anxiety medication. I have two little ones and petrified of the outcome. Picture attached of how it looks.

My brother had a malignant melanoma removed quickly at outpatients. Confirmed as malignant but no further treatment needed. That was approximately 15 years ago

The mole on your face looks small. It looks like it would be covered by a pencil (a guide to how serious). Skin cancer is one of the most easily treated and curable of cancers. Even if your mole is cancerous, something so small and recent suggests it is easily curable. AI suggests that early stage skin cancer has almost 100% chance of a complete cure.

You’re absolutely doing the right thing getting it checked. Have you been sent through on a 2 week cancer pathway referral? If so, you should hear quite quickly to come in for teledermascopy, which is when they take photos of it with a special lens to be analysed. This will give them an idea if it’s normal or something that needs to be removed.

I do have melanoma. Mine was stage 3 (had spread to my lymph nodes) by the time the GP referred me. If I’d been referred the first time I went, when it looked a similar size to yours, it all would have been much easier. Has it grown/changed quickly? For me, the obvious sign was it was very fast changing. It appeared out of no where (no mole at all) and grew to the size of yours in about 6 months. It grew to be about 5x that size in another 6 months after that. If yours has been there since childhood, that’s very reassuring, but it’s still good you’re getting it checked.

In my case though, mine was stage 3c, which is metastatic and considered pretty serious. It’s been removed. I’m completing 12 months of treatment next month and I’m cancer free. It’s been crap 😂 but I should be fine because the treatment has been successful.

Good luck to you. Hope it’s positive news.

@mindutopia Hello, thank you for your response and so glad you’re doing well now!

when I first noticed, it was the size had grew slightly, and then realised it had turned from a dark brown to black as well.

People keep saying I’ve hopefully caught it early, but I look back at photos and can see it’s been black for a couple months. But hopefully that’s still early enough. I just never realised because I have always had it and at a glance it wouldn’t be that obvious how much it’s changed.

i have serious health anxiety, and Ive been told it could be 2-4 weeks for my dermatologist appointment but ive been put down for cancellations so im hoping sooner. Just so so scared. Thank you for the reply though :)

The problem is actually waiting times to get seen. My first skin problem was 18 months and second was 2 years. If you can go private I would

My husband has had malignant melanoma twice and is just fine a decade on. I’ve been referred to dermatology before to have things looked at, even though GP thought it was probably fine, and I was seen within a couple of days. Fabulous service.

You can’t have been referred under the two-week wait, surely.

I don't know gp sent referral and that was waiting times.

I went for a referral for a mole on my
arm under the two week wait. The dermatologist was 50/50 as to whether it was either a melanoma or something benign. I had it removed and they tested it and it was benign. I had to wait four weeks for the results but felt better as soon as it was off my arm.

I recently had a full body mole check as I had a mole that turned strange, I have some moles that I've had since childhood and the nurse told me it was very rare for these to turn cancerous, although not unusual for them to have changes, but good that you're getting it checked out.

My mum has also recently had two melanomas removed and whilst it wasn't the best time of her life, the whole process from identifying, through to removal and follow up care has been pretty straightforward. She hasn't needed any further treatment.