I had noticed a small discoloured spot on my forehead but I didn’t get around to getting it looked at very early which is a bit silly. I have very fair skin, and I’d spent a lot of time in the sun riding horses as a kid.
It was small, a tiny spot really, and I mostly just covered it with my fringe. I wasn’t too worried, but it was something I planned on getting around to dealing with.
I finally got my GP to look at it. He didn’t seem overly concerned but he suggested I get a skin specialist to look at it. I’d had a few basal cell carcinomas removed but they’re the least scary of the skin cancers and it didn’t occur to me that this might be serious.
I saw a surgeon and he thought it would be difficult to surgically remove the lesion because the skin on my forehead was so tight but we still wanted to remove it, we just needed to work out how we were going to deal with it.
It was eight years ago, and I think everyone is more alert now, but none of the specialists really gave me any sense of urgency with it.
I got it looked at by a specialist again a couple of months later and we realised that it was too big to freeze it off and they diagnosed it as a squamous cell carcinoma. It had to go, and the doctors thought the most effective method of removal would be radiotherapy but right in the middle of this all I discovered I was pregnant.
They refused to treat it while I was pregnant so I had to wait.
My morning sickness was out of control for the entire nine months so although I could see the lesion on my forehead was changing I couldn’t give it too much thought as I was too busy trying to get through the tough pregnancy.
The cancer became larger due to the pregnancy hormones and although the doctors had warned me that this was likely, it was still confronting. It grew from a small freckle size to the size of a five cent piece.
When my baby was six weeks old I started radiotherapy, where every week for six weeks I went in for treatment, and then I was given the all clear shortly after.
The doctors gave me the impression that it wasn’t something I needed to worry about further. My cancer was gone so moving forward it wouldn’t be an issue but I have since found out that’s not the case at all.
My mother also had a squamous cell carcinoma removed from her face, but later she was diagnosed with a secondary cancer from that one. It had spread into her neck and lymph nodes and ultimately it killed her.
I can remember numerous times where I was sunburned to the point of blistering as a kid, mostly through carelessness and lack of knowledge. We just didn’t have the same sun screening awareness that we have today. I was super vigilant with sun screening my kids and even now I still check my skin regularly and have anything odd checked straight away.
I think it’s important that people realise that sun safety is not just when you’re in the sun. I’ve badly been burned sitting in the shade so it’s important to remember that any time you’re outside you’re at risk.
HOW TO SPOT A SKIN CANCER
According to SkinChecker dermatologists use two visual methods for initial evaluation to identify if a lesion is normal or suspect.
The ABCDE method
A – Asymetry
If you put a line down the middle would the two halves match?
B – Border
Irregular, wavy or jagged border clearly defined against the rest of the skin.
C – Color
Uneven colour. Light brown to black.
D – Diameter
Is it bigger than 6mm?
E – Evolution
Rapid evolution of size, width, or thickness.
The Ugly Duckling Method
One person’s moles are often similar in appearance. They look very alike with the same shape, colour and thickness. A new pigmented lesion can be considered suspect if it has a different appearance from the other moles. This is known as the “ugly duckling”.
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