Hi,

Please don't beat yourself up about not doing anything about it until now, we are all guilty of leaving health issues for a time before dealing with them. The good thing is that you now have a GP appointment arranged and hopefully the GP will be able to put your mind at rest. If they think it's best checked out by dermatology they will refer you & the dermatologist will decide if it needs removing for a biopsy. The size of the initial scar will depend on how big the mole is. They take a small margin of skin around the mole so it shouldn't be too big. If the biopsy comes back negative you will have a small scar that will fade in time. If, however, the results show it's melanoma, a second surgical procedure is required called a Wide Local Excision - this is where they take a larger margin of skin around the original area so the scar will be bigger.

I wouldn't jump ahead to worrying about scars etc as it may not even come to that. See what the GP says and take it from there. Moles can sometimes look dodgy but be fine whilst some moles can look fine but turn out to be dodgy! Hopefully yours will be fine and don't worry about it being a mole that appeared in your teens - new moles can appear any time up to the age of 40 - it's the ones that appear after 40 that may be suspicious. Just remember that it's very uncommon for someone your age to be diagnosed with melanoma. Also remember that for every 10 people that see a dermatologist only 2 or 3 will be diagnosed with a cancerous mole. 

Good luck and please let us know how you get on,

Angie (melanoma patient)