Deborah Hutton: My cancer battle

A tiny spot turned out to be a time bomb that could not only have ruined Deborah’s career, but threatened her life.

When Deborah Hutton went into surgery last month to have a skin cancer removed, she literally had no idea what would be left of her face when she woke. “I just hoped my lips and nose would be in the same spot,” the model and presenter says, trying to make light of what she admits was a “terrifying” reality. “When I look back now, I am so incredibly lucky. But I was also so stupid to have got to that stage when I should have known better.”

What started as a pinprick-size mark on her top lip that wouldn’t go away turned out to be a life-threatening experience, which Deborah is revealing exclusively to Woman’s Day in the hope it helps others in the same predicament. It was late last year that the 49-year-old beauty noticed the tiny stubborn red mark she thought was a pimple. However, when it would disappear as quickly as it popped up, she made the dire mistake of adopting an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude. “In hindsight, I should have done something about it then,” Deborah admits. “But I got busy with other things and told myself that most people have little red patches on their skin that just come and go. Visually, there wasn’t much there – and with a little bit of make-up, it looked fine.

“But when I was putting make-up on a few months later, I put my nail on the area and thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t feel anything.’ The area was numb and I started to panic.” Deborah knew she was highly susceptible to skin cancer. She had a small spot taken off her chest 14 years earlier, and one in the same place on her lip as the recent red mark only four years ago. As a result, she had been meticulous about having her skin checked professionally every year since.

She also knew that cancer ran in her family. Her brother David, a 50-year-old husband and father of two young boys, died soon after being diagnosed with liver cancer in 2009. Even though at her last check, her dermatologist had given her the all-clear, Deborah was desperate to get this new mark looked at. She rang her doctor, only to discover he had retired and there was a seven-week waiting list to see another doctor.