'I Didn't Think Anything so Small Could Be Sinister' ; Eleven Years Ago an Article in You Prompted Reader Jill Fordham to Get the Unusual Mark On Her Arm Checked Out - Which Subsequently Saved Her Life. Here She Tells Her Story

Summary

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IN early 1998, I was feeling unwell - exhausted, I thought, by my role as a single parent to three children (then aged 19, 17 and 14) coupled with a career as an education social worker. My resources felt so depleted that I decided to visit my doctor. Then, the night before my appointment, I read an article in YOU entitled 'My new mole looked harmless...'.

A couple of months earlier I had noticed a pinprick of a mark along the edge of a birthmark on my inner right arm, but it hadn't changed since, so I hadn't thought about it - until I read that article. At my GP's surgery, I focused on my exhaustion, for which I was prescribed antidepressants and a sedative to help me sleep. Then, as I was about to leave, I asked him to look at the mark. He did, and said something reassuring about it probably being nothing - but also that he would refer me for a specialist opinion, just to make sure.

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'I Didn't Think Anything so Small Could Be Sinister' ; Eleven Years Ago an Article in You Prompted Reader Jill Fordham to Get the Unusual Mark On Her Arm Checked Out - Which Subsequently Saved Her Life. Here She Tells Her Story

On Monday 9 February, at my local hospital in Harrogate, I attended an outpatients' clinic where, under local anaesthetic, a large area of my skin was removed. The doctor said it was a 'precautionary measure' and I would receive the results of the biopsy in a couple of weeks. When I returned for the results I wasn't too concerned.

I didn't think that anything so small could be really sinister, and it wasn't as th...

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