“If I hadn’t gone to the doctor, the outcome could have been worse.”
15:03, 17 Mar 2026Updated 16:50, 17 Mar 2026
Karen and Mark Crilley called Maggie’s a “godsend”.(Image: Edinburgh Live)
A man has told how he nearly ignored what he thought was an ‘ingrown hair’ on his face which turned out to be cancer.
Mark Crilley, from Livingston, thought he simply had an ingrown hair after finding a spot under his beard in February 2021. The 62-year-old noticed he was picking at it and his wife Karen encouraged him to contact his GP. By the time he was seen two weeks later, it had grown into two large lumps on the side of his neck.
Tests revealed he had head and neck cancer, which required intensive treatment. Mark recalled: “When the consultant phoned me, I knew it wasn’t good news. I’ve got a family history of cancer, so I had resolved myself that’s what it was.
He received car at Maggie’s – located within the grounds of the Western General Hospital.(Image: Callum Moffat)
“I was at work, driving on the M8, and he told me I had two masses in my neck, and that it was cancer in my lymph nodes. I started telling him I had suspected it already, then he said ‘but’ – and it’s never a good thing when a doctor says that.
“He told me I also had a tumour tethered to the back of my tongue, and would call me again later when I wasn’t driving. So I said some bad words, and turned around at the next junction and went straight back home to tell Karen.”
Mark is the latest person to tell his story in Edinburgh Live’s series spotlighting Maggie’s centre in Edinburgh – the charity’s first location, which celebrates its 30th year in 2026.
Since opening its doors in 1996, it has provided free psychological, emotional and practical support for people with cancer as well as their family and friends. Despite the Edinburgh centre welcoming around 18,500 visits last year, the charity says misconceptions still exist, such as Maggie’s being a hospice, or only for women with breast cancer, and are keen to spread the word through people’s experiences.
He was told he would need four teeth removed followed by six weeks of radiotherapy, with a cycle of chemotherapy at the start and end of the course. Due to Covid restrictions, Karen wasn’t allowed into the hospital to be with Mark. However, Maggie’s had just reopened to visitors the day before.
She said: “I had already heard about it from a friend who had breast cancer, but it wasn’t for her. So I had always known about it, but never been through the door.
“Mark told me to go, rather than just sitting in the car waiting for him. That very first day walking in was terrible, very very hard, because you know what’s happening and it’s real.
“But they were a godsend. When I walked in and started crying, one of the volunteers took me into a room and went to get Andy, who was the centre head at the time.
“I went in every day for the six weeks and just wrote all the time. I felt so much lighter when I left.”
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Mark himself was encouraged by Andy and other Maggie’s cancer support specialists to get out and socialise, as well as attend a group at the centre.
He said: “I could barely chew or swallow, and didn’t want anybody to see me like that. And at the time, I wasn’t ready to talk about it like that.
“But after my treatment was over and I was cancer free, I started going to a men’s support group once a week. I felt guilty saying I was cancer free, especially when some of the guys didn’t have a good outcome.
“That small group faded, but they set up another which now has 26 men going to it. Later, they told me there was another man recently diagnosed with the same type of cancer who wanted to talk to somebody who had been through it. He wanted to know if I could eat steak.
“I also spoke to another man recently to share my experience. I never had that myself because of Covid, so I was more than happy to help.”
Nearly five years later, Mark confirmed he can eat steak – but has been left with no sense of taste as a side effect of his treatment.
However, he used humour as a means of dealing with any challenges – referring to his feeding port as his “bullet hole”, his chemotherapy as a “special cocktail”, and joking with other patients he was in the ward with, some of whom he still keeps in touch with today.
He added: “I think I had to poke fun at it. Some people will say nothing at all, but I thought talking about it in any way helped, and that was the way that helped me.
“I’m now one for talking about things honestly, and encouraging my colleagues to go to the doctor if they’re concerned about something.
“If I hadn’t gone with that spot, the outcome could have been worse. A couple of guys at work have even gone and got checked, and unfortunately not had good news – but they told me they would never have gone if I hadn’t said.”
Mark and Karen have three daughters – Amanda, Emma and Joanna, all aged in their 30s – who alongside Karen fundraised for Maggie’s by holding a bake sale in their back garden. The company Emma works for also donated £10,000 to the charity.
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