Hello and thanks for posting

I am sorry to hear you have had some family members who have had cancer and your moles and cancer risk.

When cancer is in the family, people often assume that this greatly increases their risk of developing it, but this isn't necessarily so. Although the genes we inherit may influence our risk, this may not be by very much. No one is risk free and the risk of cancer increases for all of us as we get older. This is quite a complicated topic and it might be useful to look at our section explaining genes and inherited cancer risk at this link.

Cancer is described as a genetic disease because it is caused by mistakes or faults in the genes of in a single cell. But in most cases of cancer, these gene faults develop over someone's lifetime and are not inherited. Faulty cancer genes can be passed from one generation to the next, but they are uncommon.

Just to say at your age any cancer would be unlikely but I think for your peace of mind it is reasonable to have a chat about this and your moles with your doctor, so do keep the appointment.

It is good to be aware of what your moles do look like so you can keep an eye and get any changes you may notice in the future checked out. There is more information about this here. Moles can come in all sorts of shapes, size and colours and it doesn't usually mean something sinister is going on it is when a particular mole changes that it can be a sign something might be going on.

Try not to worry and see what you GP has to say.

Take care

Naomi