Just posting my story in case it helps someone else.

ive always had a mole on my back that was a funny shape, almost like a tooth. Stupidly I thought it was nice and it never crossed my mind that it shouldn’t be odd shaped.

Because i dont see it much I forgot it was there, until i saw it in a photograph and realised at some point in the last 18 months it has almost doubled in size and was an even weirder shape.

Cue major panic stations. That thing hit every one of the ABCDE criteria in a major way. I just knew it was cancer and I was so mad at myself for not paying enough attention to my moles. I have loads of them.

My GP was convinced it was melanoma and put me on the 2WW and they were the longest 2 weeks of my life. I was convinced it was at least stage 3 and my life was about to change forever. I was just waiting for staging in my mind I was so certain it was melanoma. I couldn’t sleep I couldn’t eat, I was a mess.

I researched  everting there is to know melanoma and I just knew. I tried so hard to make it fit one of the benign options but it just didn’t.

Anyway appointment day finally comes. It took the dermatologist about 30 seconds to determine it was a sebhorreic keratosis and not only was it not malignant it wasn’t even a mole.

honestly felt like I had won the lottery. She checked all my moles and was happy with all of them. I’m going away from this with a new appreciation for my life and how fragile it is and a lot more knowledge of melanoma and how to protect and check myself.

I guess my point is that only a dermatologist can tell you what a mole may or may not be it may not be as bad as you are thinking. Very grateful to the NHS.