Melanoma skin cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with almost 17,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
But thousands of people could be walking around not knowing they have a cancer that kills 2,300 people a year. An estimated 21% of melanomas were missed in the first year of the pandemic, with a 68% drop in diagnoses between March and June that year, according to the latest figures from Melanoma UK.
May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, so the charity is urged people to regularly check their skin for moles, lesions or other changes that may indicate a melanoma or a non-melanoma skin cancers. Roughly 156,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are diagnosed each year, but it can be less serious than melanomas.
