A woman knew she needed to go to hospital after looking in the mirror
Lianne Jackson was a skin cancer nurse and her worst fears were realised after she noticed a strange white spot on her cheek that refused to go away. The tiny spot looked nothing like the dark, lumpy moles most people associate with skin cancer - but luckily, Lianne years of experience as a skin cancer specialist at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral caused her to look twice at the seemingly innocent blemish.
She said: "It was a little white lump. It looked like a milk spot. I said to my doctors I thought it was skin cancer under my eye, and they said it was unusual at my age. We kept an eye on it, and it grew a bit more.
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"As a skin cancer nurse I knew what it was and got it removed, but it got me thinking. Had I not been a skin cancer specialist, I wouldn't have known.
"Skin cancer awareness of very much focused on melanoma, which is the deadliest form of skin cancer. The advice we give people is to check your moles, but also check your skin. Look out for spots, blisters and cuts that never go away."
Lianne, 42, from Claughton, had the "milk spot" removed by her colleagues at Arrow Park in a biopsy last month. Further tests provided the diagnosis she had feared - skin cancer.
She said: "I already knew what it was. Obviously, it was very upsetting, but I knew that I was going to be looked after."
She is now awaiting a further operation to extract the remaining cancerous tissue at St Helens Hospital.
She said: "Merseyside skin cancer diagnosis rates are above average nationally. Melanoma rates are higher as well. I think Liverpool has a real culture for sunbeds." She added that she too used to be hooked on sunbeds, which give out strong ultraviolet (UV) rays that increase the risk of skin cancer, before she became a skin cancer specialist 10 years ago.
Lianne said: "The skin is the biggest organ in the body. People make skin cancer seem insignificant because they think once it's cut out, it's gone, but that's not really the case. Melanoma can often metastasize (spread to other parts of the body). If it's not caught early, the outcomes are poor."
The estimated five-year survival rate for patients whose skin cancer is diagnosed early is over 99%. However, this falls to just 30% for patients whose cancer has reached stage four.
NHS data found that skin cancer diagnosis rates increased overall in the Liverpool City region between 2014 and 2019, with South Sefton CCG reporting the highest increase at 61% - making it the 11th highest-ranking area for skin cancer in England. Wirral CCG ranked 25th with a diagnosis rate of 35.8 per 100,000 and an increase of 10.5%, followed by St Helens and Knowsley.
Only Liverpool CCG reported a decrease in skin cancer diagnoses, with numbers falling by 6%.
Lianne has now promised to help survivors of the deadly disease by offering free scar-reducing treatment to people who needed parts of their skin removed.
She said: "The skin cancer I have is locally invasive, so it's unlikely to have spread, but it's not nice having a big scar on your face. That's what spurred me on to offer treatments to people who had facial scars.
"Early awareness saves lives, and if you are concerned about a lesion or something that you don't think looks normal, go and see your GP. My scar could have been a hell of a lot worse had I not been aware of what it was."
Free scar-reducing treatment is offered by Lianne at the Advanced Beauty Academy on Upton Street, Claughton.
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