Information from the NHS states that squamous cell carcinoma is a slow growing form of skin cancer,<\/a> with the most common treatment to remove the growth which may need a skin graft to repair the wound.<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SPQAIM3NFJC2FONWMQOD3C3D4M.jpeg\")
John McGahey has said he is debating whether to opt for costly private treatment. PICTURE: RONAN MCGRADE <\/p>\n
Commenting this week, Mr McGahey said he was still feeling \u201cignored\u201d and treated with \u201ccontempt\u201d by the Western Trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve received no follow up from Altnagelvin and I phoned the consultant\u2019s office twice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m now 12 weeks on an urgent waiting list. On June 22 a scan showed it was 10mm, requiring a 20mm removal area.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, it\u2019s grown to 20mm and requiring a 30mm removal area. They haven\u2019t bothered their barney about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr McGahey said the lack of updates has left him wondering if he should now try to pay for private treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking of going private but I don\u2019t have a good pension to be honest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started work at 16 in 1967 as a brick layer and worked for 50 years paying my bills, I built my own home and this is the thanks you get.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go private something like this it could cost up to \u00a34,000 for a skin graft when it\u2019s got to this size.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family are very concerned. People are looking at me and they\u2019re concerned about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asides from the stress of waiting for his treatment, Mr McGahey said managing his condition was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel too bad during the day, the problem is going to bed at night,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy pillow cases are soaked with blood in the morning from it. When I shower the towel there\u2019s blood all over the towel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 12 weeks on an urgent waiting list. Am I going to have to wait around for another two to three weeks?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/KO3AASZPG5KK3P626VVQZTEFRU.jpg\")
Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Pat Cullen (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n
Ms Cullen told The Irish News: \u201cWhile there has been a lot of back-slapping around reductions in waiting lists, the reality for patients can be very different.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr McGahey is a constituent who has been left waiting an unacceptable length of time to have a cancerous growth removed at Altnagelvin Hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo make matters worse, there has been a lack of proper communication with him about when he can expect his surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just a statistic. This is a man living with cancer, waiting for treatment that he should not have to chase for answers about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stating that the system had let him down, Ms Cullen said she would continue to raise Mr McGahey\u2019s case directly with the Western Trust. <\/p>\n
A trust spokesperson said they had passed on Mr McGahey\u2019s concerns to the Maxo Facial Service and urged him to contact the trust directly, but could not comment further due to patient confidentiality.<\/p>\n
Those with concerns about their care are also encouraged to contact the trust\u2019s Comment and Complaints system.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Fermanagh pensioner waiting months for skin cancer treatment says he is now worried he will have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9879,3016,59,102,69223,104,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-773637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-altnagelvin-hospital","tag-co-fermanagh","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789651214_946_ZU3GKSRB5VHDRBMPYMSA7MZX3Q.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Derry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789651215_473_GAP7JAD6FZFJ3FDBJDV45W36NM.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n