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An Invernessian in America: Get it checked if you notice anything out of the ordinary


By Diane Knox

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If you feel like something isn't right, get it checked by your GP.
If you feel like something isn't right, get it checked by your GP.

Diane Knox discusses a skin cancer scare – and the importance of getting anything unusual checked.

I’m sure it’s hard to believe that summer is right around the corner. And it’s rich of me to say that from Florida eh?! (As I write this, it’s dull and rainy, so cut me some slack.)

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, so as we dream of sunshine, hotter temperatures, SPF 8 and hopefully that summer holiday, I’m here to rain on your parade!

I’m kidding, but sun safety is something we all need to be mindful of, and over the next two weeks I’m going to tell you why.

It’s funny, this is something I rarely talk about to family, to friends, on social media. It’s something I stop myself from even thinking about. But it’s very real to my life and something that really changed my perspective forever.

Writing about it will be good for the soul, and

might help someone else too, so I’ll go back to the very start.

In early November 2014, I was putting body lotion on as usual, rubbed my right shoulder and felt a little bump. A spot – it was tiny. I looked at it (hoping for a squeeze!) and saw this little dark blemish. It wasn’t a blackhead, it was more like a pinhead-sized, raised freckle. I thought nothing more of it.

Naturally I have fair (very Highland) skin, some freckles and a few moles, so it really was nothing out of the ordinary.

It must’ve been a week, no more than two, later. That teeny freckle had grown and probably doubled in size. So I did the usual ‘poke and prod’ enough to be slightly concerned.

I was obviously aware of skin cancer – melanoma – but I wasn’t going to be dramatic enough to bother anyone about it. So l left it. But it continued to grow, as did that little niggle in the back of my mind.

With my parents living in Florida, I always tried to avoid worrying them over silly things, but I eventually told my mum. And you can guess what she said: “Get yourself to the doctor right away!”

And that I did (because you can’t disobey your mum). My local GP examined it and sent me away, saying it showed no abnormal signs. That was enough for me to feel at ease, however that was short-lived.

Guess what, it continued to grow, and after two more trips to the doctor I was referred to a specialist. By this point the mole was about the size of a 1p coin, was bleeding and had formed almost a hard shell-like surface. Gross, I know.

In February, I went off to the hospital and had it removed by a specialist for further examination, but even then was told it didn’t show any suspicious signs, was probably nothing to worry about and I’d hear back from them in six to eight weeks. Fine, case closed!

But two weeks later I was doing final preparations for my radio show on Clyde 1 in Glasgow, 10 minutes away from going on air to be all bright and bubbly when my phone rang. And the phone call was like a lightning bolt!

That day is a bit of a blur but to cut a long story short my results were in, I went straight to the hospital after work, my friend Lucy met me there and the specialist told me the news. I had malignant melanoma, stage two. I can’t even put into words how I felt, but I remember thinking it was all a mistake and this could never happen to me. How ignorant!

I sat in the doctor’s office and felt completely numb as he started to go through our game plan for the next few months. Treatment for cancer? It was, and still is, so surreal.

I remember at that stage not really caring too much about how I was feeling and how I was going to absorb and comprehend the news. I could only think about my parents.

They were in Florida so I had to FaceTime them to give them this horrible news – and I knew how heartbroken they were going to be. That honestly was the worst part of the entire ordeal.

Unsurprisingly, they wanted to jump on the next plane out of Jacksonville and get to Scotland, but I delayed them until I knew I’d really need them. And that day came on April 1 – I still wanted someone to jump out and scream “April fool” right up until the second they wheeled me into surgery!

Anyway, I went through what’s known as a sentinel lymph node biopsy. The sentinel node is the first of the lymph nodes where cancer is likely to have spread, so I had them removed from my neck and right underarm, as well as 5cm of skin from around the site of the melanoma, leaving a bunch of battle wounds.

A few months later the results came back all clear.

I am well aware how much I’ve played that period of my life down and condensed months of anguish, anxiety and pain down to a few short sentences. But that’s how I’ve dealt with this throughout really.

I always knew it was going to be OK. But the diagnosis changed me, and all for the better.

The usual cliches applied – not to take my health for granted, to seize the day, do what makes me happy, etcetera. But it was also the catalyst to move across the Atlantic to be with my family, and that’s been the greatest decision I’ve ever made. Kind of ironic though that I developed skin cancer when living in Scotland, and then moved to the Sunshine State. But I’m obsessed with sun screen (which also comes with age as I don’t want to look like a wrinkled prune) and lather on SPF 50-100 religiously. And the great selection of brands available now means that SPF 100 doesn’t look like you’re covered in a greasy film of talc.

I go to the dermatologist every six months for skin-mapping (photos of my entire body) and they’ll scrape away and test anything that looks even a little bit suspicious.

Floridians, generally, are really ahead of the game when it comes to skin care.

But the main point of my column is this: if you notice ANYTHING out of the ordinary on your body, get it checked out and be persistent if it changes.

Looking back, I knew in the pit of my stomach that something wasn’t right, and the fact I persisted with my GP probably saved my life.


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