{"id":77992,"date":"2025-08-19T14:55:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/77992\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T14:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:55:21","slug":"mother-of-four-43-reveals-subtle-mark-she-thought-was-just-dry-skin-but-it-was-skin-cancer-i-always-wore-sunscreen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/77992\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother-of-four, 43, reveals subtle mark she thought was just dry skin – but it was skin cancer: ‘I ALWAYS wore sunscreen’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother-of-four who dismissed a small dry patch on her nose was shocked to be told it was skin cancer\u2014because she had been ‘obsessed’ with wearing sun cream.<\/p>\n

Amanda Anderson, 43, first noticed the blemish in January but assumed it was down to the cold Utah<\/a> winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She visited her GP ‘just to be on the safe side’\u2014but was given a cream to soothe the dryness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when the mark came back, bled and began to scab, Amanda’s instincts told her something wasn’t right.<\/p>\n

She went to another medic and a biopsy revealed basal cell carcinoma\u2014the most common type of skin cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘I wasn’t super concerned at the beginning,’ said Amanda, who lives in Layton and works for a suicide prevention charity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It was just a little dry spot on the side of my nose. With it being the winter it’s common to have dry patches.’<\/p>\n

Doctors scheduled her for Mohs surgery, a specialist technique where thin layers of skin are removed and examined under a microscope until no cancer cells remain.<\/p>\n

\"Amanda <\/p>\n

Amanda Anderson, 43, first noticed the blemish in January but assumed it was dry skin, down to the cold Utah winter<\/p>\n

\"Doctors <\/p>\n

Doctors scheduled her for Mohs surgery, where thin layers of skin are removed.\u00a0The procedure left a penny-sized hole in her nose, which was repaired by folding skin from above and below<\/p>\n

Amanda needed three rounds before surgeons confirmed they had cleared it.<\/p>\n

The procedure left a penny-sized hole in her nose, which was repaired by folding skin from above and below to cover the gap.<\/p>\n

‘It’s hard to hear,’ Amanda said of her diagnosis. ‘It’s on my face and as a woman we do everything we can to make sure our faces look as good as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’m obsessed about sun cream and shade. So it was a bit of a gut punch.’<\/p>\n

Amanda’s father, Kirk Romney, 66, has faced his own battles with skin cancer and endured more than 17 Mohs surgeries to remove tumours from his face, neck and shoulders.<\/p>\n

But Amanda grew up in Arizona in the 1980s, when tanning was fashionable and sunscreen wasn’t widely used.<\/p>\n

‘I’m very fair\u2014I freckle, I don’t tan easily,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘There was a tanning salon across the street from school that wasn’t regulated. I lived in Arizona where it was year-round sun.’<\/p>\n

\"Amanda, <\/p>\n

Amanda, today. She said of her diagnosis: ‘I’m obsessed about sun cream and shade. So it was a bit of a gut punch.<\/p>\n

Now recovering, she is urging others to take skin protection seriously and to act quickly if they notice anything unusual.<\/p>\n

‘The damage is done when you’re young,’ Amanda said. ‘I encourage my daughters to put sun cream on underneath their make-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’m trying to build healthy habits in my kids. People don’t realise you can get sunburnt through the window of a car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We have to take care of our skin like you would your teeth. Skin cancer is so preventable.’<\/p>\n

Skin cancer is among the most common cancers in both the UK and the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Britain, melanoma\u2014the deadliest form\u2014affects around 17,000 people a year, while here are an estimated 156,000 new non-melanoma skin cancer cases annually, including basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma.<\/p>\n

In the US, around 9,500 people are diagnosed with skin cancer every single day. One in five Americans will develop it at some point in their lives.<\/p>\n

Basal cell carcinoma, which Amanda had, is rarely fatal but can cause significant damage if left untreated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

It often appears on sun-exposed areas such as the nose, lips and ears\u2014as the main trigger is UV exposure, from the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Squamous cell carcinoma is also common and can spread if not removed early.<\/p>\n

Melanoma, though accounting for just one per cent of cases, causes the vast majority of skin cancer deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around 104,000 new melanomas are expected in the US this year, leading to more than 8,000 deaths.<\/p>\n

The good news is that survival is high when skin cancers are caught early.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the UK, more than nine in ten people with melanoma survive at least ten years\u2014one of the highest survival rates of any cancer.<\/p>\n

But outcomes depend heavily on how early it is caught.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the disease has spread to the lymph nodes, survival falls to around 75 per cent, and if it reaches other organs just 35 per cent of patients live five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Non-melanoma cancers like Amanda’s are even more treatable, with cure rates above 95 per cent if removed promptly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mohs surgery\u2014considered the gold standard for high-risk or facial skin cancers\u2014offers cure rates of up to 99 per cent.<\/p>\n

Experts urge people to be vigilant and check their skin regularly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For moles, dermatologists recommend the ABCDE rule: look out for Asymmetry, irregular Borders, Colour variation, large Diameter, and any Evolving change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other red flags include sores that don’t heal, patches that bleed or scab, and new lumps or bumps that look different to the rest.<\/p>\n

Amanda says her experience shows that anyone can be affected, no matter how careful they are.<\/p>\n

‘I had a gut feeling that it was going to need to be removed,’ she said. ‘I’m just glad I listened to my instincts.’<\/p>\n

She will now have check-ups every six months but doesn’t need further treatment. Her advice is simple: don’t ignore changes to your skin.<\/p>\n

‘Skin cancer is so preventable,’ Amanda said. ‘If you notice something unusual, don’t wait. Get it checked.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother-of-four who dismissed a small dry patch on her nose was shocked to be told it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-77992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77992","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=77992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}