I like so many people absolutely love the sun. I find it healing, I love to have a bit of colour because it makes me feel better and of course we all need a certain amount of vitamin D. I am also the typical pale skin, freckly girl with blue eyes whose skin doesn’t tan easily.

My earlier years of a mis-spent youth on Camber Sands beach along with other holidays saw me go from white to pink to occasionally bright red to beige – desperate to get a tan. Not thinking about the consequences because at that age its a long way away!

Now in my later years I do actually get a pretty decent tan with skin that has weathered many years of abuse. Including the use of sunbeds – convincing myself that I only use them before I go abroad to get a base tan.

I always use sunscreen abroad, perhaps I haven’t always been as good as putting it on over here if I just pop out, but I always thought that as I had got older my skin protection was pretty good.

However – and this is what I want to get across to you – in the space of a year I have found by chance two completely innocuous patches on both shoulders and one on my left arm.

The first one in May 2023 looked just like a spot but not. It seemed to appear from nowhere and within weeks of me seeking it it turned into a dry sore patch – no bigger than the size of my little fingernail. BUT something in the back of my mind knew it wasn’t quite right. I got a friend to take a picture of it and when I enlarged it I knew straightaway that this was not a normal dry patch.

I nervously went straight to my GP who agreed with me and I was put on a two week pathway for suspected melanoma. Within a week I had seen my GP, then a dermatologist and then referred to another dermatologist to have it removed urgently.

The actual removal was fine. Local anaesthetic and within 20 minutes it was cut out leaving a decent size scar to encompass the “margins” that they have to take to make sure they get everything. I then had a 2 week wait to find out if was the melanoma they thought it could be. That was worse than the procedure. All the horror stories that you hear and of course google led to a few sleepless nights.

After 2 weeks the results arrived and what a relief – it was a Basal Cell Carcinoma. Completely benign. They don’t spread and all the margins were clear including my lymph cells.

I felt like I had been given a second chance. I knew that sunbeds were a massive no no and I also knew that Factor 50 would be my ‘norm’ for sunscreen. I knew that I would need to be careful of the times I was actually out in the sun and make sure I sat in the shade at its highest point. Of course I also thought that this would mean I would be pale for the rest of my life so fake tan was becoming a fabulous option.

I went abroad a couple of times last year and I was a reformed character!! I had the best tan I had ever had. It has lasted for a while too. All using Factor 50 relentlessly. Sitting in the shade for a lot of the time.

Although I have since found two more of these patches, again purely by luck – they have just been removed. Skin cancer is in my family so I know I will now have to be religious at checking anything I think is unusual.

My message to everyone is please, please, please think about your use if any of sunbeds, your time in the sun and the cream you are using. Especially if your skin type is like mine. I caught all of mine early and purely by chance. If you have anything that you are slightly concerned about the doctors are only too happy to check them for you. I was lucky because they were Basal Cell and also caught early. I dont know how I would have been if they had been Melanomas.

I have uploaded the pictures I took so you can see just how small and innocent they looked and also how they looked when enlarged – all taken on my phone.

Please rest assured that if you come to see myself for treatments I am always on the lookout for lumps and bumps and am now getting enrolled onto a course so that I can recognise more easily anything out of the ordinary but you can also do this for each other. Just every now and again, check each other’s backs, legs etc that you can’t do for yourself.

You never know – it could just save your life!!